I use guides without too much concern. In the moment, it's terribly frustrating to do so- partially out of concern that I must be really bad at the game, mostly out of annoyance that in the middle of being immersed and enjoying the game I have to stop, turn on my phone or computer, and go web-surfing for tips instead of playing my game!
Overall though, I don't mind. I've come to realize a lot of the people I see online who've played ridiculous amounts of games are people who
-don't work
-are playing the same games over and over again
-don't seem to have other hobbies
and so on. Not that any of that is inherently bad, they can enjoy themselves as they please. It's more that, my life doesn't really allow for so many games to be completed. I work two jobs. I spend time with my niece. I play board games. I sew. I watch YouTube & a few TV shows. I am a busy girl- I don't time to devote hours to re-playing the same chunk of game over and over to find a hidden maguffin or secret technique or what-have-you. So I look it up in a guide if I get stuck- usually I'm doing the right thing, but the timing is off or I need to move half an inch over. Which is frustrating (how am I supposed to know to climb the rope if the space to connect is so small, I can try, fail, & mistake it for a background element?) but also vindicating (Ha! I knew I climbed that damn rope!) Sometimes you get the odd WTF in there too (I have to kill an invisible spider?! How would I know that?!)
It's also the same reason I often play on Easy mode- I'm here for the game. The whole game. Not just the same boss or platforming segment over and over until I do it in such a way the game deems I may proceed- but don't die, or you'll have to do it again. It's why I love the kind of variable difficulty that shows up these days- games that put optional pickup goodies on the 'hard' path, but let you beat the game without them. Less so the Easy Mode items... I mean, I suppose I appreciate it's there, but man do you feel like crap when Mario games start putting in the Golden Tanooki suit. It's like "Hi- you kinda suck at this. Admit it, and we'll let you wiiiinnn...."
In the long run though, if there's no help from guides, no cheat codes (I rarely use those, but sometimes on the retro stuff), and it's literally just "play this until you can win"- yeah, I just quit. I have hundreds of games, I guarantee there's something else I want to play around!