HFCS is high fructose compared to regular corn syrup. It's not necessarily high fructose compared to table sugar (sucrose). Table sugar is 50% fructose by weight; HFCS comes in 55% and 42% fructose varieties. The FDA says [1] the 42% variety, which has less fructose than table sugar, is used in most processed food other than soda. So fructose doesn't seem like a plausible mechanism for non-soda HFCS to be worse for you than table sugar.
I don't like HFCS--I think it gives sodas a flavor I can best describe as "sharp," based on blind taste tests I've done comparing same-brand sugar and HCFS sodas--but I don't see solid evidence that it's worse than sucrose. I think it's mostly used as a scapegoat by people who don't want to conclude that sugar in general is bad for you.
I don't like HFCS--I think it gives sodas a flavor I can best describe as "sharp," based on blind taste tests I've done comparing same-brand sugar and HCFS sodas--but I don't see solid evidence that it's worse than sucrose. I think it's mostly used as a scapegoat by people who don't want to conclude that sugar in general is bad for you.
[1] https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/high-fruct...