Would you feel better if you lost money from a legal pyramid scheme or an illegal scheme? It is kind of a stupid question because it doesn't matter you still lose money whether it is legal or not. I would not feel any better to lose two thousand dollars in a multilevel marketing or a Ponzi scheme.
The structures are completely the same. There is a person on top and many people supporting the top person by buying into a product or network. The only difference is the network marketing is suppose to have a product to sell and the pyramid doesn't.