2: I think not cheat but fun feature. Despite to first impression.
During walkthrough I some times try to use this, and most of time I have longer fight and more troubles than just shot every baster fast. (Or jumper comes to your ass or some grenades make You surprised!)
And even I tried to use shied protection from final boss on MAXED, but... It's just a sad picture. (At least before couple of latest fixes)
It's frequent situation for me, when I playing in some game of MutantLeg I think something like "It's so cheat and just a free stuff", but ago I feel more like "It's so cool! I love it think! Why other games won't make it same way?" because game have another points to challenge to allow it a bit of fun.