People are people

[Olga Meerson]

Both expressions are misanthropic: keep your expectations low. The grounds differ a little:
 Люди есть люди means "be lenient". 
люди как люди means the expectation that they should be no worse than the rest, but the expression may be followed by a "but" (i.e., in reality, they may be assessed as worse than the rest: вроде люди как люди, а ведут себя, как звери

Master and Margarita: Люди как люди... Квартирный вопрос их испортил. Means the reason they seem [even] worse than the rest is that they have a residential crisis (therefore they inform on one another and send one another to labor camps!)

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