> The reason corn syrup is demonized is because it is cheap, enabling lots of foods to pack sugar without much cost.

This !

The OP made a bad point using coke as an example.

The actual point is the HFCS and the fact that HFCS is used extensively in the US, often in places you would not expect it.

In bread products for example its common to find HFCS in it in the US.

The Europeans rarely put any form of sugar in their bread doughs unless they are explicitly baking a sweet product. And even then, the concentration is lower.