Your first point above is precisely what Sprint is trying to capitalize on through their marketing manipulation. Shifting the mental agenda on which service is best is the marketing strategy. The truth -- that all services suck -- is precisely what all cell phone marketing aims to obscure.
Meanwhile, do you think Sprint intends to make profits on its cell service, either through eventual true profitability or through a sale of its brand to a bigger rival? Of course, they do. They're not providing a public service. They're trying to make money for their investors. They use marketing to do that. It's manipulation.
What is it with leftists on this issue? We either peddle grandiose theories of "consumer culture" as the source of Orwellian brainwashing, or we try to act so smart that we know marketing doesn't matter. Marketing is not total brainwashing; yet, if marketing didn't have some impact, it would not happen.