The important factor is the effect that the soda has, and this is a matter of context. An athlete taking part in an endurance event, or one who has recently done so, will have reduced liver glycogen stores and low blood glucose. Taking in sucrose or HFCS in this state helps bring liver glycogen and blood glucose back up to normal levels.
For a sedentary person with full liver glycogen and normal - or possibly already elevated - blood glucose taking in a sucrose or HFCS drink will stress the liver and elevate blood glucose. Elevated blood glucose is not a good thing and you want to avoid it. Diabetics are slowly 'eroded' from the inside out bit by bit by elevated blood glucose given their diseased blood glucose control mechanisms. Sugary drinks - and the stress they place on the liver - are a prime candidate to explain the explosion of cases of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in sedentary individuals; a condition that was rare a mere few decades ago.
To the person who stated that HFCS acts in a different way to sucrose I'm afraid that is not correct. HFCS is typically very close to a 50:50 mix of glucose and fructose. Sucrose is also 50:50 glucose and fructose and is catalyzed so quickly by sucrase in the intestines that there is no practical difference between the effect of a sucrose solution and a HFCS solution.