They are definitely different experiences, but nearly all drugs have different delivery mechanisms with different onset times and intensities and long-term consequences of using them. The crack-vs-powder cocaine difference is nowhere near, for example, the difference between smoking and injecting heroin. But that is not considered a different, more dangerous, more brutally punished drug if you inject it.

And more importantly the subjective experience of the delivery doesn't matter, the origin of the distinction is in the historical record. Crack cocaine was given different, much harsher, sentencing guidelines for unambiguously racist reasons, that then needed to be justified in the public consciousness.