Should I cut the "it" here?

@Andrew Van Wagner posted:

See the bold:

according to Chomsky, it wasn’t a matter of state coordination versus the free market and it was instead a matter of efficient state coordination versus inefficient state coordination.

Also, I could replace "free market and..." with "free market, but..."; the issue is that I want it to be crystal clear that it's still Chomsky talking post-comma...I don't want to introduce any ambiguity in terms of whether it's still Chomsky talking post-comma.

Hi, Andrew—Your construction there, while not grammatically incorrect, is rather cumbersome and therefore awkward. What you are trying to say, as your readers will realize, is "but was instead a matter of":

• [A]ccording to Chomsky, it wasn't a matter of state coordination versus the free market but was instead a matter of efficient state coordination versus inefficient state coordination.

Here is another, fancier revision, which uses five fewer words:

• [A]ccording to Chomsky, it was a matter, not of state coordination versus the free market, but of efficient versus inefficient state coordination.

Thanks so much! This is excellent and I really appreciate this!

I will implement the below option:

• [A]ccording to Chomsky, it wasn't a matter of state coordination versus the free market but was instead a matter of efficient state coordination versus inefficient state coordination.