That doesn't really seem to be the case, though. The NHTSA looks at highway and road data to determine what types of crashes result in the highest number of fat

That doesn't really seem to be the case, though. The NHTSA looks at highway and road data to determine what types of crashes result in the highest number of fatalities and then creates tests around those. If "cheating" implies that they're only designed to pass what the NHTSA happens to be testing then, by extension, the vehicle would protect the occupants against the types of crashes that are most likely to result in a fatality. That seems like huge win to me.