Training abs does little for the appearance. How your abs look depends on body fat. Your friend lowered his body fat.
I don't believe you. If you do many crunches on the Ab Blaster 2000, you will have a tight defined midsection no matter how fat you are....ahahah
My favorite, watching some fatbody doing crunches, light cardio, and a piss poor diet, then wonder...why don't I have good abs? It's amazing in the day in age the lack of knowledge at hand.
On the roid issue, yes, roids are magic...I'm surprised you're shocked at your friends gains. If gaining quick muscle wasn't so easy on gear, I'd probably take some. At the end of the day, it how you feel about your gains. If you'd be happy with getting some relatively easy gains, go ahead. I for one, would feel like a sorry piece of shit, so I don't. Just looking in the mirror knowing the only reason I look halfway decent is because of drugs, would give me a poor self image. I'd rather look like mediocre shit naturally, than pretty good on gear. Of course, I'm not everyone though. Good luck with whatever you choose.