Game cheat dev here: Just to provide some context, the GTA Online client is woefully horrible at doing client-side validation on the packets it receives from other peers. (there isn't an authoritative server)
This means that anyone in your session can send you a weirdly-formed packet to crash your game. Most cheats have protections against this by just doing Rockstar's job and adding better validation around packet interpretation routines.
Using "cheats just to protect [your]selves" actually makes a lot of sense.