No on both counts. I'll try to explain. Go back to the figure of a hepatocyte, a cell in the liver, in comment# 29. It shows how the metabolism of fructose promotes the formation of triglycerides, one of the original polyesters, from the glycerol "spine" of triglycerides and three free fatty acids that had been converted into fatty acyl-CoA.
Table sugar, sucrose, aka a disaccarhide, will get hydrolyzed and break down into glucose and fructose, both 6 carbon monosaccarhides that get metabolized differently because of the difference in structure, glucose having a hexagon like structure, fructose having a pentagon like structure with part of a tail of methanol, especially if you're swallowing too many calories. The vertices in these polygons are carbon atoms, except the O's, oxygen atoms. It's a common convention in the structural drawing of organic chemistry. I'll let you guess what the H's mean. Hint, it's part of water.
Errant, the linear structures of D & L fructose is somewhat misleading as single bonded carbon atoms have 120 degree angles with neighboring atoms within a molecule. Think of methane. Carbon is in the center of a tetrahedron of 4 hydrogen atoms. Each angle from the carbon is 120 degrees. That's why the molecule can flop around and make ringed conformations in equilibrium with the "linear" structures, like you have in comment# 37.
The good part of sucrose is glucose. Your brain doesn't work on anything else. Your heart and most of the rest of your body can use free fatty acids for fuel, but not your brain. As I tried to explain, excess fructose tends toward de novo lipogenesis, i.e. the making of new fat, as in triglycerides from the glycerol "spine."
Another question I have about it is; is this a significant metabolic difference or is it simply a measurable difference due to more sophisticated methods of looking into metabolic processes? I realize those may not be mutually exclusive things.
IMHO, I think this a significant metabolic difference. With the epidemic of diabesity, I think the HFCS manufacturers should be made to prove otherwise when people are taking in calories in excess of their daily need. Since most individuals don't have their own personal dietitians, I'd say that for any sedentary individuals to use sucrose sparingly and avoid fructose except when it's natural like fruit.