Re: That would be..........
I'm 6'2" 160, 34, and generally 'not' a muscle bound freak, and I've taken plenty of creatine - and every other thing you can possibly buy at GNC.
It may not be so great for you, but like you said, it's FAR from steroids. A substance like that must be on the 'not allowed' list because of other impacts on the body's organs, not unfair performance.
All that GNC stuff is terrible for your kidneys. My physician calls GNC 'the-kidney-stone-slash-acne-in-a-bottle-store.' It's all a bunch of stuff you over ingest and pee away 90% of it after you work out - although some of it definitely helps, depending on which.
The problem I've had with all GNC stuff is that none of it is consistently dosed. The same pill or powder quantity will have enough 'whatever' to make me think I'm Popeye one workout, and Olive Oil the next.
They aren't regulated by the FDA like a drug company, so they constantly get dinged for crazy crap - with names that sound like Chinese Kangaroo Pancreas, Amazon Baboon Testicle, Giant Marsupial Pouch Yeast, Russian Armpit Hair, Dead Sea Conch Tentacles, and Wang Chung Panty Crickets, etc. - that they put in a bottle and sell for a year, and then aren't allowed the next year, and none of it ever seems to be homogeniously mixed.
They got in all kinds of trouble for all the "loading doses" on the first creatine bottles. It was insane the amounts they said you needed in the early days.
My liver is still angry at me for what I did to it in college, and my kidneys bear the same grudge for all my GNC patronage.