I find it hard to believe that another route could not be found. It might take some doing, but both Verizon and Cogent peer with quite a few networks. I recall seeing a peering chart that showed that Cogent (was PSI) was near the center of peering on the Internet. Are you saying that all of the networks that Verizon and Cogent peer with do not have transit links? Are you saying thet none of those networks would pass Verizon or Cogent traffic for a price? That was the way it worked before Cogent and Verizon had an agreement. Why couldn't it revert back to the way it was?
It's boring, I know, but actually this was all covered in the original article.