I think that everybody here agrees that the fake athletes are not the same as borderline applicants who had LoRs which may have pushed them across the line.
Fake athletes were accepted fraudulently, and they were admitted based on their identity as an athlete. Their admission itself is invalid.
At least in the case of Blum, the student was waitlisted, and had chances of admission which were at least as good as most solid RD applicants. The 26% chance of admission that was mentioned in the article is higher than that of most applicants. The applicant did not present any false info, and they had a decent chance of being admitted even without the LoR.