PEDs for so long was huge. If you're in the minors and everyone around you is taking this stuff (that wasn't even against baseball rules), you're faced with joining the crowd and doing it to keep up with the others or risk getting left behind. Sure, there has to be accountability, but I guarantee that most of us here in CB would happily take the (again, legal) PEDs if it meant securing a spot on a big league roster and extending a career 5 or 6 years. For an average MLBer, we're talking 10 million bucks.
The analogy isn't perfect, but I just have s hard time faulting guys who took PEDs. One of the most exciting summers of my teenage years was the summer Sosa and McGwire chased history. Sure, that's been tainted quite a bit, but I saw a couple of Sosa's HRs that year in person and those memories last a lifetime. The PED induced long ball made people love baseball again after the '94 strike.