First, he didn't expect RL to have defer-reading, readability, and sync. But, like everyone's saying, it does. Shit.
Second, the defer-reading market is theoretically huge. It's something everyone needs to do. A tiny percentage captured off that market is worth millions of dollars.
iP is currently the best synced defer-reading app around and probably will remain so even after Reading List is released.
But more importantly, how hard is it to come up with 2-3 killer features to further differentiate iP from Reading List for the tiny fraction of the market required to be successful?
I'm sure it's dismaying to see what he expected to be an afterthought feature showcased in the keynote, but I'm still with him on the dynamics of this market. Reading List is not going to be the final word in deferred reading.
For whatever it's worth, Marco is the one I feel bad for here. Most of these other applications were so clearly implicated by Apple's roadmap that it's hard for me to get too worked up about it. How do you not cheer for Apple taking steps to replace SMS?