Howman was being conservative. He knows the lowest figure is unarguable but that doping is likely also to be much higher because tests catch only a fraction. The athlete surveys suggest many more and so do other informed estimates from insiders. An exact figure for doping cannot be ascertained because very few are actually caught.
You talk of "anonymous nobodies" - like Armstrong, Jones, Johnson, Bonds, Ramzi and Kiprop - and Houlihan - as well as the numerous Kenyan distance runners who have been championship medallists as well as world record-holders. It simply shows that doping will be found amongst the very best in sports. Of course. That's how you get to be the best.
If an athlete "believed in training and talent alone" then they are conceding to those with equal talent and training who also dope. No athlete who wants to be the best will concede being second-best if they can avoid it. That is why doping in sports is a billion dollar black-market industry.
That you think athletes looking for every advantage they can is "weak-minded" shows you know nothing about what it takes to get to the top in sport - or in anything. They don't hold to your antiquated values - and never did.
This is just you repeating your unsupported fantasies.
They failed to persuade before and remain unpersuasive. But you are entitled to your opinions, even if baseless.
You are not the magic genie granting the wish.
As I said - you are the Pollyanna of doping deniers.