I just set repeat on the craftsdwarf workshop for crafts and trinkets of whatever I have a lot of, which in the fortress I'm running now is pond turtle shell, bones, and wood. Then keep the crafts in a stockpile with bins next to the trade depot... Also selling the breedstock after I've gotten a tame populace of animals as well as the rotting clothes left behind when my dwarves grab the new suits that are being produced... If I do send off anything super valuable like prepared food barrels, I usually send it as an offering instead of using it to buy things, and that's usually because I want to clear up some space in the stockpiles (and taunt the mountainhome about how poor they are compared to my fortress)...
Also, "exploit" and "cheating" are different, cheating involves modifying the game itself to make things easier, while exploits are just things people consider overpowered. Personally, I find the idea of genning a world with more than "sparse" ore generation to be lame, but you probably won't find anyone else who agrees with that.
In game terms, the trade thing is generally fine, it would kinda suck if you accidentally got a berserk dwarf because you didn't make enough rock mugs in advance to buy the gems the moody dwarf is asking for early on, but I understand why people don't like the unbalancedness of it when they've been fortressing for awhile... I can't wait for the day there's a real economy, if only to see how many people get annoyed at all the bearded drunks in their trade simulator.