Yeah there's nothing really surprising about that study. I stated above that AAS accelerate the process and recovery. They absolutely 100% work and I'm actually a huge proponent, just don't support the negative or reckless aspects. Gains made natty generally take twice as long as on the gear, and the first cycle gains would typically be even a bit more. But with regard to the "stop growing points" that doesn't mean you'd end up gaining twice as much LBM just that you'll get there twice as fast. It's not all about the drugs by any means. Genetics, training and diet play much bigger roles. If you're doing the right hardcore training and dieting consistently you'll make the gains (male or female)...gear will just get you to that next level much quicker.
So you're saying that an Aleesha Young could have gotten close enough to her current physique as a natural that there wouldn't be much of a difference? It would have just taken her a lot longer? I don't think anyone believes that. It might not be twice the muscle mass, but it's substantial. If something close to an NPC national level physique was possible without PEDs, we'd see something like that in the natural federations. Again, they look good, but they just aren't anywhere near that level.
This article is from an accomplished power lifter and strength coach who attempted to answer the question of how much more muscle mass can be gained, steroids vs natural, based on available research. Link below plus the text of conclusions reached.
https://www.strongerbyscience.com/much-steroids-increase-hypertrophy/4) How much of an advantage do drugs provide for hypertrophy?
The advantage is pretty massive.
The average untrained male has an FFMI of about 18.9.
Without drugs, the typical trained male winds up with an FFMI around 22.3, for a gain of 3.4 FFMI points. That’s about 9-13kg (~20-30lbs) of muscle, depending on height, gained over a training career.
With a reasonable degree of drug usage, the typical trained person winds up with an FFMI around 25.5, for a gain of 6.6 FFMI points. That’s about 20-24kg (~45-55lbs) of muscle, depending on height, gained over a training career.
In other words, there’re a roughly two-fold difference. That doesn’t mean that a user winds up with twice as much muscle; it means that users will typically wind up around twice as far from their starting point than nonusers.
With extreme usage, the gap gets dramatically larger. The top IFBB pros have FFMIs around 40, which is 21.1 points better than the average person. Of course, not everyone who does that amount of drugs will compete in the Mr. Olympia, but the top IFBB pros are about 6x further from the average person than the typical drug-free lifter is.
Naturally, the magnitude of that advantage that drugs provide will be larger or smaller based on the amount of drugs someone takes, their genetics, and how well they respond to drugs.