None taken, sir.
I've commented upon this question before ergo, I shall be brief. For me. 
Camaraderie with those of like mind.
I have been a bodybuilder for decades (more physical culturist, really) and even competed a few times but admittedly was NOT good enough to win but I had fun and my family and friends were kind enough to sometimes attend.
I know that from the 60s on, big time bodybuilding was primarily drug driven but I could accept that as I knew more than a few gentlemen that competed and took steroids but they did have a genuine "base" built upon years of training without the drugs and accepted that when off, they would shrink up like a leaking balloon and would have to start all over again.
They didn't want to risk their lives for a chromed plastic doorstop. They worked jobs and had families. The guys that were homosexual (at least those I knew) were not fucking buttsluts for money. There were guys at Gold's that did that but while I knew a few of them and they were never rude to me, I could not say they were more than gym acquaintances. The same is true of guys at Joe Gold's World Gym when he opened that up. I met Joe once and he seemed a very nice man.
I prefer the physiques of the 40s through possibly 1985. It started to get stupid weird around that time.
The idea that bigger is better never flew with me. So, I am with you in that the physiques past bodybuilders attained were preferable as inspiration in setting goals for myself. For a minute in time, I weighed 225 lbs. I quickly got over any desire to be huge. Not only did it take a lot to get to that point, maintaining it would have dominated my life, which is something I personally find unhealthy, both mentally and physically.
But to each their own. What's preferable to me may not be to someone else and I am fine with that as long as it doesn't negatively affect me. Whether or not people rely on AAS is their choice. Even in the 60's AAS was available, legal and being used. I was prescribed D-BOL plus a weekly Testosterone injection to overcome being extremely skinny. It worked. I've never returned to weighing 144 lbs at nearly 6' tall. At least in my case some of what I gained with the help of steroids remained after I stopped using them, thank goodness.
