The Pepsi part is *not* irrelevant.When given the choice between free Pepsi and not-free Coke,regardless of how it's formulated,many,*many* people will choose the Pepsi.
Have you ever been to Detroit? Or the Bronx? I have...recently.Lots and lots of "Pepsi" drinkers there.
An even more fitting analogy to describe our current dilemma would be one featuring Santa Claus.
You are too invested in proving the imperfection of the analogy to realize the validity of it in part. The article was mainly about the coke-new coke part of the equation from the POV of the coke fans. On that point, the analogy does hold.
Now, whether either will overtake the “free” pepsi is a related topic, but not the point of the article. That won’t be the main issue until first the “coke v new coke” discussion is settled. So the analogy isn’t perfect, but again, on the main point, the immediate point, it is valid.