I've read (and been told) that steroids aren't useful in cases of pneumonia, but I think that's because of their effect on the immune response. Seems to me if you're in exceedingly dire straits the first thing you need to do is get the inflammation down and worry about immune response later. A few years ago my wife had severe pneumonitis which responded very quickly to prednisone treatments. As an asthmatic, in the past I've been treated with both cortisone and prednisone for severe attacks of bronchitis. In every case my condition improved almost immediately.
Sometimes the medical people are too clever for their own (or rather your own) good.
You are correct. However ARDS is not pneumonia. That gets confused in the news. And is often misreported. Your experience makes you far more educated than the standard idiot covering medical news
The stitches on the fast ball is this study compares the efficacy of dexamethasone in particular with other steroids. Dex is more powerful and hence not used a lot precisely because of the immunosuppressant fear. Surviving sepsis campaign chose hydrocortisone as its steroid of choice and I suppose has been extrapolated to all critical situations.
This particular article is poorly reported on by the lay press and the actual study has a lot of medical nuance in it.