roids don't increase power like that, as mentioned earlier, they significantly aid in recovery: this means less fatigue, more effective games played throughout the season, more potential for hitting homeruns. roids don't affect bat speed, timing, and that ever-important eye--all of which are vastly more important than the density of muscle behind that swing.
that being said, people often say the above in defense of "roids don't really improve HR rate because of this!" which I also disagree with--obviously it does, but not for the reason most people would assume. It's about "increasing opportunity to do so," not "increasing individual hit power."
Though I think you're hinting at that. McGwire also suffered heavily from spasms--not sure if that was a result of the drugs, if not tangentially, or if the roids actually helped in that recovery as well?
If you believe guys like Brady Anderson or LuGo hit 50 HRs in a season just because their bodies recovered better, I have a bridge to sell to you. Talent, recovery, staying healthy and opportunity certainly are important, but PEDs did help batters hit more HRs. A
lot more. Your boy Barry Bonds went from a ~ 40 HR hitter to 73 near the tail end of his career. It's not like Bonds was injury-prone before he converted to the house of PEDs; he was already a HoF caliber player. IIRC McGwire hit 70 and Sosa 66 in their famous duel because pitchers never stopped pitching to them. OTOH Bonds hit 73 even though he was getting pitched around a lot (this grew to absurd amounts in the next couple seasons thereafter) by season's end.
No what I was hinting at is your memory was lacking, because neither of us is a huge baseball fan. McGwire was spotted with andro in his locker, and that is the only thing he ever fessed to until 2010. Andro was an OTC supplement at the time, so it probably wouldn't even be banned if MLB did have a PEDs policy in 1998. Some MLBers did lie to Congress (most infamously Rafael Palmeiro), and McGwire actually took intense criticism for refusing to answer questions.
McGwire hit 49 HRs as a rookie; he had all the talent to break Maris' single season record. But what he needed was PEDs to keep his body right long enough to do it. All I'm saying is that argument doesn't apply to a lot of other guys in the 'roids era whose HR rates shot up like a rocket.
I'm actually OK if ultimately the stain of PEDs was removed from the Hall of Fame consideration. But TBH that would be a little like giving 7 Tour de France trophies back to Lance Armstrong because everyone in cycling was cheating at the same time. (In reality, it's unknowable how even the playing field was in either sport.)