It's funny, to me, that the guy will sit in a meeting with a bunch of executives and VCs, all making significantly more money than he is from the software he's writing, and the major complaint he has is that they're cutting off free soda.
To put it another way, it's amusing that the software engineers make a big deal out of free food and drinks, when the people "above" them are getting massive pay checks from the software engineer's work.
It's no wonder we're getting another tech bubble when software engineers will sell themselves out for $5 worth of snacks.
Free soda is a perk that costs the company say $10,000. It makes taxes a bit complex (because do people really declare the free soda?) but it's cheap and easy and people love free stuff.
The goodwill you get from that simple gesture is worth more than just giving people the cash as part of their salary.
You either have PHBs that get it, and leave it alone (while monitoring for abuse) or you get PHBs who don't get it, and who cut it, and who then have to spend a lot more money replacing all the staff who leave.