Sprint Geezer, I like your educated way to discuss, giving your opinion and explaining the reasons.
I say that there is no difference, under moral point of view, between any kind of doping. But we have evidence that doping works at different levels, depending on the qualities involved, looking at the final results.
Briefly :
a) When we speak about roids, with the specific goal to increase the different types of strength and muscular power, THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT IT'S NOT POSSIBLE TO REACH THE SAME LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE USING TRAINING ONLY.
This fact is widely demostrated by the list of WR in track and field. WHERE THE MOST IMPORTANT QUALITY IS MUSCULAR POWER (throwing), NEVER there was any WR after 1988, when IAAF started to fight in better way the cancer of steroids in Athletics. WHERE the impact of steroids can change the natural situation in bigger way (with women), NEVER there was any WR after 1988, again. Not only, but the average (in percentage) of the winning performances decreases dramatically.
I saw personally some of the WR that are very far from the today level in the same event : Discus (76.80 in Neubrandeburg from Gabriele Reinsch, during a match between Italy and GDR in 1987), and Javelin (80.00 in Potsdam immediately before OG of Seoul 1988 from Petra Felke), and now you are almost sure to be the winner in top Championships, throwing a 15% shorter !
I saw, during their training in Munich before OG '72, athletes like Brian Oldfield (Shot putter over 22m) beating in 30m (not 10m !) starting from blocks the best sprinter of US, so it's unquestionable roids can change many things, in direction of strength.
b) But, when we speak about EPO (from 2001 it's possible to investigate DIRECTLY the substance, while before that year the system was to look at the level of hematocrit : if higher than 50, the athletes had to stop competing fro 15 days, in order NOT TO RISK THEIR HEALTH), we have the following list of WR after the official start of antidoping tests :
2001
7:55.28 (3000 SC) Brahim Boulami (Bruxelles) 24 Aug
2:19:46 (Mar W) Naoko Takahashi (Berlin) 30 Sep
2:18:47 (Mar W) Catherine Ndereba (Chicago) 7 Oct
2002
2:05:38 (Mar M) Khalid Khannouchi (London) 14 Apr
2:17:18 (Mar W) Paula Radcliffe (Chicago) 13 Oct
9:16.51 (3000SCW) Aleysa Turova (Gdansk) 27 Jul
2003
2:04:55 (Mar M) Paul Tergat (Berlin) 28 Sep
1:17:21 (20k WM) Jefferson Perez (S. Denis) 23 Aug
3:36:03 (50k WM) Robert Korzeniowski (S. Denis)27 Aug
1:05:40 (HM W) Paula Radcliffe (S. Shields)21 Sep
2:15:25 (Mar W) Paula Radcliffe (London) 13 Apr
9:08.33 (3000SCW) Gulnara Samitova (Tula) 10 Aug
2004
12:37.35(5000 M) Kenenisa Bekele (Hengelo) 31 May
26:20.31(10000 M) Kenenisa Bekele (Ostrava) 8 Jun
7:53.63 (3000 SC) Saaeed Shaheen (Bruxelles) 3 Sep
1:12:45 (25k Road) Paul Kosgei (Berlin) 9 May
14:24.68(5000 W) Elvan Abeylegesse (Bergen) 11 Jun
9:01.59 (3000SCW) Gulnara Samitova (Iraklio) 4 Jul
2005
26:17.53(10000 M) Kenenisa Bekele (Bruxelles) 26 Aug
1:28:00 (30k Road) Takayuki Matsumiya(Kumamoto) 27 Feb
1:22:13 (25k RoadW)Mizuki Noguchi (Berlin) 25 Sep
1:38:49 (30k RoadW)Mizuki Noguchi (Berlin) 25 Sep
2006
14:24.53(5000 W) Meseret Defar (New York) 3 Jun
2007
56:26.0 (20000 M) Haile Gebrselassie (Ostrava) 27 Jun
21,285m (1 HR M) Haile Gebrselassie (Ostrava) 27 Jun
55:31 (20k Road) Samuel Wanjiru (Den Haag) 17 Mar
58:53 (HM M) Samuel Wanjiru (Ras Kha.) 9 Feb
58:33 (HM M) Samuel Wanjiru (Den Haag) 17 Mar
2:04:26 (Mar M) Haile Gebrselassie (Berlin) 30 Sep
14:16.63(5000 W) Meseret Defar (Oslo) 15 Jun
1:02:57 (20k RoadW) Lornah Kiplagat (Udine) 17 Oct
1:06:25 (HM W) Lornah Kiplagat (Udine) 17 Oct