I think all drugs should be legal for recreational use, but Ulbricht almost certainly did try to murder several people and believed he succeeded. This evidence was admitted at trial and contributed to the sentence. The crooked agents' actions didn't invalidate those aspects of the fundings: it appears there's very strong evidence he genuinely tried to do that, repeatedly.

So, I have zero sympathy for him. Life is an appropriate sentence. Other DNM owners who don't try to kill people, on the other hand, I definitely tend to sympathize with (though if they allow sale of fentanyl or poisons/weapons, that complicates things).