There definitely is a difference.
I have never viewed the LDS Church Word of Wisdom approach to alcohol, coffee, and tea in the light of "those things are inherently bad".
I have viewed it in a two-fold way. First, our prophet has asked us to avoid those things, so a line was drawn in the sand. If we covenant to avoid them because we have faith that the prophet actually converses with Jesus, and that is His will, then that is the first and most important thing. Secondly, I view these items, and plenty of others not listed as not good for us in the fact that they can cause addiction if used improperly or with moderation and that they reduce or affect our reasoning, decision making, and ability to feel God's Spirit. There are as many tolerances to these substances as there are people, and we won't really know until we try it. I view it as avoiding the whole situation by avoiding the possibility that we will be so affected by one or all of these addictive types of substances. This is also why many LDS people use the story of how close can you drive a wagon to the edge of the cliff, with the punch line of "I don't care how good and skilled you are and how close you can get to it, it's best to be as far from the cliff as possible with that wagon."
I seem to remember something said to Joseph Smith on the alcohol about "conspiring men in the last days", or some such thing. I'm too lazy to look it up, but there are and have been plenty of people/companies that create products that are addictive for the main reason that it creates return customers and increases their earnings. If you're in it for only the money, why not create a desirable product that creates such an addiction that people not only want to come back for more, but "have" to.
/2cents
