Keep some extra of those lite strips around until you get the new ones. Open the new ones and compare them. If you can spot the difference, well then you're a magician making things appear out of thin air ;-P
Sarcasm aside, the company will never admit to it, but there is NO difference between the new freestyle and freestyle lite strips that both have zipwiks. If they've got a butterfly on the front, they're the same. Except that they come in a blue bottle vs. the yellow bottle (and box) that the lite version comes in. And if you have insurance, they're the same price...but if you look at the shelf price, the regular freestyle strips are usually 10-15 bucks cheaper (on avg) than the lite version. So if you're paying out of pocket, you'd save money by going w/ the regular freestyle w/ zipwiks rather than the freestyle lite with zipwiks.
That's the other "coincidence" between them. ALL of the versions of the new strips with zipwik tabs are coded to 16.
Now wait, strips that are made specifically for meters with no code required (i.e. freestyle lite w/ zipwiks) are suddenly showing up with codes on the side of the cannister...? Why would a company go to that trouble, if you don't need a code? Money and red tape.
The strip was originally designed to be backwards compatible w/ all meter versions that they make (so freestyle, freestyle lite, freestyle freedom, and freestyle freedom lite). Pretty sure the FDA didn't like that very much (or someone w/in the company wanted to make sure there wasn't a hold up w/ the FDA at least). So they now make "two strips" (which is really only 1 strip in 2 different cannisters).
Sure is crazy. My takeway is (1) makes sure to benchmark the PDM BG meter regularly with another meter and (2) hopefully when Omnipod switches to One Touch integration with the PDM next march, this problem will be fixed once and for all....but, per your cautionary note, I'm not holding my breath....