Yes, it wasn't the world's only RSS client, but the existence of it, along with Google's backing, had somewhat stifled innovations. So there weren't that many o

Yes, it wasn't the world's only RSS client, but the existence of it, along with Google's backing, had somewhat stifled innovations. So there weren't that many options to choose from at the point. There were a few reasons I could think of why people were upset: Reader started in the era of when Google was generous. It gave away 1GB of email storage and free Email service for your own domain. It felt like a betrayal to end the service like this. There was the same reaction when Google announced the end of Gsuite legacy free edition. Finally, Google essentially declared to the entire world that RSS was dead. Although Google claimed that usage of Reader had fallen, the users who continued to use it do get values from it and thus they very much disagree with that assessment. It wasn't like Google was a small business that had fallen on hard time.