That's the price of having actual ethical standards. Yes, Franken would be treated differently right now, but Democrats would still take the allegations seriously.

Remember that this happened at the peak of the then-nascent #MeToo movement. From a neutral observer's standpoint, that movement "taking down" a Democrat goes a long way to establishing it as an independent, apolitical thing. Hypocrisy in that moment could have done a lot of PR damage and stopped other, more credible allegations from being taken seriously.

Franken has never publicly complained about how he was treated, as far as I am aware, and I think that's because he knows his career was sacrificed in order to pay the cost of that movement sticking around. It sucks and it's unfair, but that is how the game is played.