Excellent article. I totally agree that this development is unfortunate. I use Opera which I find has very good RSS support.

I think that RSS is not known much outside converts and techies because people often take for granted the idea that users all know what it is. In my experience, that is not always the case. I remember reading this post years ago: How to explain RSS the Oprah way backinskinnyjeans.com/… I used it to explain RSS to friends in simple terms.