Let me try to articulate this another way.
1. It's absurd to try to punish the culture of PSU because that culture is no different than it is at virtually every school with a big time football program. You can't fix it by singling out one school.
2. Any competitive advantage gained by PSU on the actual football field was minimal. Had the right thing been done at the right time, the damage to the school and football program would have been small. Because there would have been damage...I can see the argument that the NCAA could and should levy punishment...but the crimes were individual ones not directly related to football. Punishments for violations like this should be in line with the real "advantage" (or, in this case, averted damage) gained, not overly punitive.
3. The crimes in this case really were limited to a handful of people...and are being handled by the courts. People who had nothing to do with it, and more importantly, gained nothing from the cover up, are being punished. That's not justice. Cowherd said this better than me.
As a final point....nobody defending PSU is defending what happened, or the individuals concerned. I am in no way trying to minimize the harm. I'm a victim of this kind of abuse myself, and there's no way in heck I would want to punish the rest of my family for what my uncle did to me or my siblings.