Hacker News Reader

They can for example:

* only provide lead text

* use html with image ads

* use html with an ads-js

I use rssbridge for sites without a feed, and the feediron plugin for ttrss for sites whose feed is incomplete.

For folks on iOS the app Unread does an instapaper-like reader view of the feed text if it detects (or if you set manually) an excerpt feed

As a protocol it hasnt been replaced by something better. So it isn't dead, just pushed out of the market by grabby walled gardens