I'm mostly with you, but carbonic acid is harmless. If anything it might raise the pH in your stomach.
I switched from consuming soda from cans (and bottles) 2 decades ago. Drinking from soda fountains exclusively is more expensive at times and certainly doesn't taste as good (being a brown sugar suspension with few additives), but my skin stopped breaking out, my diabetes tests are negative, and my weight is consistent. I'm convinced it's not the soda flavor nor only the sugar nor the carbonation, but the containers and solution related to the acid. Bottled soda has all kinds of nasty effects based on how it's stored and for how long, that soured me pretty early on.
Phosphoric acid (popular in Coke) is the much more dangerous one eating bone, organs, affecting the liver.