Well I never liked to play games were you think you're concealed but really you aren't to experienced players. You can go in the graphics options and turn grass density down to the left, move tree degrade distance to the left so they don't obscure players, turn particle systems off so you don't see rain, turn gamma up at night etc. The graphics screen is only a front end to the games files, changing it there rather than the config doesn't really make much difference.
All that really matters is whats culturally acceptable, what people consider legit. If that thread was a "pointless witch hunt" given all that was discussed then I don't see why you shouldn't tweak what you can. Its done in every game with a competitive element to it like this. You will find its the scrubs or newbs who don't tweak if you're allowed to do it. Its not just ini files too, if you can install mods that make it easier to see players and its considered legit, then people will do it. Like the louder hooves mod (which for me isn't the main problem, its the surround sound that makes it harder to detect where cav is). Its left to the player to decide what is or isn't acceptable