The penny example IS a bad analogy, but that doesn't ipso facto discredit certain other analogies made.

There is significant different between picking up a lost/discarded coin on the street and intentionally connecting to another person's paid service. Perhaps not seeing that induces a person to misunderstand the relevant analogies?

Using analogies to shed light on a subject CAN be very helpful, but only so long as the intended audience can grasp them. When people scoff at relevant analogies and/or pose irrelevant analogies of their own, that tends to indicate a fundamental lack of insight into the actual issue. That's very difficult to overcome, especially if sheer argumentive stubbornness is the cause of the impasse.