No, I don't think calculators were associated with cheating. More with a skill atrophy.

Stockfish on the other hand is of course associated with cheating because it does all the work, unlike calculators.

In other words, it is a made-up argument. I think some mathematicians are either addicted (Feynman disease) or hope to make a breakthrough and somehow get credit. So they use "the public" to justify their habit.

The real public that is not on these forums wants academic freedom and independence from corporations. Both will suffer if you are entering soulless production pipelines.