Yes, cheating. In my experiance it is common practice to leave a slight
size allowance to plane or sand the drawers for a perfect fit.

If using a dovetail jig with router I often leave out the dovetail at
the top and bottom depending on the drawer width. Or shift the jig so
you have a reasonable size piece at the ends.

I have seen dovetails done in a production shop with a final pass with
a trim bit.