This is certainly no conspiracy. More like inconsistent and ill-considered strategy over many years. I'm sure Google genuinely wants to help Wordpress here with

This is certainly no conspiracy. More like inconsistent and ill-considered strategy over many years. I'm sure Google genuinely wants to help Wordpress here without making a power play; it would be very much in their interests to do so - thriving independent content platforms keep the web alive and diverse which in turn reinforces the value of search. It's just a shame that unintended consequences things like Google Reader over the years have done much to harm blogging. It could have been so much better...