What's the consensus on proxies in cEDH?

I played a few games with freinds using proxies, and they are very understanding about it, but I'm worried if I will get barred from playing cEDH with proxies when I branch out into more pods and players. I absolutely don't have the 3.5k to spend on each deck I want to try, so I'm stuck in a dillema. Should I stick to casual commander?