The vast majority of cadets and midshipmen move through their SA time and service time without managing to do things of this magnitude. The media does not report on that. The relative few who engage in cheating scandals, drugs, sexual assault, theft, murder (look up David Graham and Diane Zamora) and other misconduct that rises to the level of crime, will always put a SA in the spotlight. Plan to be one of the many who manage not to do things this bad.
Midshipmen and cadets reflect the society they are drawn from. No screening process can test for rash decision-making if there is no history of it. No one mentions this in an essay or interview. Every human being is flawed; every human being is capable of making decisions that lead down a bad path. If there is truth in the stories floating around, I expect these cadets were the same as you, young people who worked hard for their appointment, never dreaming all the factors would come together one day such that a decision would be made that led to this outcome.
Pragmatically, service academies and the military plan for attrition for various reasons. Misconduct is one of them.
You can control who you are. USMA is an institution that demands holding yourself to a higher standard. Wouldn’t you rather be at an institution that at least tries to do this in terms of culture, and generally succeeds? No doubt drug-related incidents occur at Regular U, but the story isn’t picked up by every news outlet. If you manage to obtain an appointment, you will navigate the same challenges and pressures, and you will have to be vigilant and self-aware, especially with regard to peer pressure, impulse-driven behavior, and magical thinking that can combine to drive decisions with bad outcomes.