re: appropriate choice
Your example of baking soda is interesting. Using an analogy of biological evolution, it's the economic equivalent of the shark or cockroach.
Capitalism will handle changes in costs and overhead quite nicely, thanks. If one industry or another ends up in the buggy whip category, well, that's also part of the process.
What I find fun is that much of what happens in a healthy innovative market turns out to be a complete surprise to most "experts." Many of the largest industries not only didn't exist when I was young, but nobody had even imagined them.
What's the next big thing going to be? Don't ask me.