I believe: if a person is playing a map for pleasure, and especially if it's not their first time, but they want to add some variety or improve their personal record, then they should feel free to use bugs if they wish.

Agreed 100%. It's just that when someone uses the Admiral's Hat and then writes "you're all losers, I beat the map in a week," it looks comical :)
IMO, a pleasure walkthrough means do whatever you want, even turn on cheat codes right away.
For me personally, after beating a couple of hardcore maps and gaining experience, I want to tackle the next map for speed, but without bug abuse — just through logistics, tempo, fast captures, solving puzzles, and so on. All of this is roughly in line with HeroesWorld rules, so to speak.

Regarding the video of the guy who completed "Wayfarer" in 70 months, I had a thought yesterday: I saw in the discussion that he wasn't the only one who had trouble finding 90000 ore for the passage guardian. This guy probably just didn't find where to get it and simply hoarded resources and exchanged them for ore. That explains it: of course, it took an immense amount of time. Thankfully, I figured the map maker had foreseen ore acquisition, and I wasn't mistaken — I've already eliminated that guardian. Now, though, I need to find diplomatic artifacts to proceed further. At least it's good that I don't have to sit around anywhere for a long time to accumulate resources or troops, so the pace doesn't slow down.

Chances are that guy just didn't use the map editor, though on such maps you can periodically do so.
Generally, there's a difference: using the editor or not. You can play blind for fun (there are enthusiasts like that), regardless of how long the walkthrough takes.
And there's the option of strictly following the map editor, thus GREATLY speeding up the pace and drastically reducing completion time. IMO, the second option is more interesting to me.

Not to mention that many don't have the wonderful Prospector program (which was a revelation for me a couple of weeks ago :)

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I'm just curious how maps are typically played in various communities, even the Chinese or European ones.

So far, this site discusses Chinese gamers the most, because they have step-by-step walkthroughs of certain maps showing how specific tasks are solved.
As for other communities, I also spent some time browsing Polish sites looking for info on the Limes Inferior map, since it interested me back then.
And of course, I have to read heroescommunity.com from time to time.
Interesting what they think about us :)