I wouldn't say that the baseball writers are all over the map.
Papi & Pudge were associated with steroids through the 2003 testing that wasn't meant to be made public and has only been shared through supposed leaks. Neither have other solid evidence.
Bonds, Clemens, & ARod have much, much more direct evidence of use and it's widely accepted all 3 used PEDs.
If you would like, you can fault the baseball writers for considering PED use at all or for giving it their best shot to parse between rumored and effectively proven PED users, but they've pretty much drawn a clear line between rumors and all-but-proven fact as a determining factor in how they vote (as a whole).