I can't imagine any significant number of people were using it to justify keeping it, but perhaps I'm wrong.
When Instapaper removes Apple Watch support it deletes the app from the watch of everyone who installed the iPhone app update.
It didn’t work very well and just tended to get in the way when using playlists. The only third party watch app I use happily is OmniFocus, and it’s so nice in some ways that I’ve learned to live with it’s also-very-obvious bugs.
I have a cellular Apple Watch and need third party apps to be available if I'm going to leave my phone at home even occasionally. Unfortunately major developers are dropping Apple Watch support in droves: https://mjtsai.com/blog/2018/04/04/instagram-removes-watch-a...
Users too – and developers are following suit, except for some special use cases …
(Unfortunately, useful notifications for iPhone apps depend on an Apple Watch app.)