I often think that Google Reader was the worst thing to happen to RSS. It became the standard everyone used, but never implemented feed authentication, forever

I often think that Google Reader was the worst thing to happen to RSS. It became the standard everyone used, but never implemented feed authentication, forever preventing the idea of premium subscription feeds from succeeding. With all the complaints about page weight, tracking, and overzealous advertising, the idea that I could just pay to subscribe to an RSS feed has more appeal than ever.