Since the discussion about RSS is popping up every month now, I'll just repeat myself that RSS is still doing great in terms of publisher support. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17684481
Maybe someone is paying a PR company do push the topic because they plan to release a new product around RSS. Would certainly be interesting.
Any casual HN browser has seen the scores of "Google is evil... and they killed Reader!" comments endemic to the discussions of any produt release or shuttering by the former tech darling. It was just a matter of time before some smart reader figured out how to leverage the sentiment with code and vc funding. Thats what we do.