Obviously people can find a way to cheat and I dont think the intent of any stage design is to eliminate cheaters (as you mentioned its impossible) but to have a fun match. As you mentioned this is truly a game and the $$$ involved is so small it limits the desire for almost all to even want to cheat.
That just opens the door of negative nancys saying I wont shoot a match because people cheat. Well....bye. Im still going to go have some fun.
NRL Hunter has been running blind stages pretty successfully for nearly 2 years. Never once a backup and plenty of volunteers so far. That being said ALL MD's have volunteer issues. Thats why Im so for shooting on Friday. Pay the RO's. And for the most part there has been zero to no complaints of cheating (ie looking/seeing targets/shooting positions ahead of time OR sharing wind). With a little prep and having some terrain with trees/rocks/hills its easy to make a blind stage.
If someone wants to text their friend the target locations and wind...well that sucks but Im not worrying about it. Should we not try blind cause someone might cheat? as opposed to the alternative with NO blind stages people WILL cheat (that is if you think shooting matches should be individual.)
YMMV
DT
There is a difference between competitors discussing stage strategy and cheating, at least in my mind.
My rifle background is National Match shooting. Unless a match is clearly designated in the program as a team match, there is no coaching of shooters allowed. When you're behind the rifle, you and only you can make the wind and elevation calls to make the hits. No one behind you can help you, that is cheating according to both CMP and NRA rules. That is not the same as discussing what you saw with friends or team mates either before or after the fact.
Stages in USPSA are clearly not blind. And shooters freely discuss their stage plans and strategies on certain targets (movers for instance). And yet when the timer goes off no one can help you from behind as that kind of help is cheating according to USPSA rules.
Stands (stages) in NSCA sporting clays are clearly not blind. Shooters there also freely discuss how they're going to attack each presentation. Not cheating there either.
The fact that people in other individual shooting sports aren't kept in the dark and aren't forbidden to share what they know or think with other competitors has not hurt competitive equity in the decades that those three examples have been functioning as shooting sports.
If the NRL Hunter wants to be different, so be it. As you can tell I don't agree.