Well, gear actually does do a lot. There have been numerous studies from legit sources showing that people who took AAS over x amount of time, didn't monitor their diet or even lift weights gained more lean body muscle mass than people who did everything in and out of the gym drug free.
The cold hard truth is AAS don't just work, they REALLY work, and because of the above comparison, people abuse steroids knowing that even if they ate McDonalds all day, slept 5 hours, and spent their time in the gym banging their head against the wall, they're still gonna receive very noticable results.
To do it right and healthy, you're gonna get much better results and drastically reduce health risks. But if you HAD to do everything right in order for AAS to work, then a lot of people wouldn't touch the stuff. U realize that most of the people on AAS today aren't athletes at all, they're normal middle class peeps.
So, to the OP, ur right, but then again, technically gear actually does do a lot for you regardless of how you eat/train/rest, and because it IS that easy, so many people abuse em.