Letterbox format

So the picture used for my previous post about the moor above my parent’s house is in what the camera calls ‘HDTV’ format. Which effectively means it’s wider, but narrower than normal – more like cinematic letterbox. When viewed on a slideshow on my computer it comes complete with black bars at top and bottom of the screen. Straightaway it imposes a sense of narrative pretty much as though one were looking at a still taken from a film, there’s an expectation that something is about to happen, or has just happened. I love it, but I’m wondering – is it cheating? Stupid question, but I can’t say I’ve seen that many pics taken this way and I wonder why.