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I don't understand how this pertains to my comment. Nobody's arguing whether listeners will, as a matter of preference, avoid Google/Apple/Spotify podcast clients. Nobody makes a claim about how many people know of RSS.

It's up to the podcast producers to decide for/against distributor-exclusivity, determining whether OC has to use YouTube Music.

> The vast majority of folks don't know that they have a choice, let alone that they should find/choose an app.

That's... fine. What matters is whether they do have a choice if they go looking for one — again, that's up to podcasters, not up to Google.

The websites for podcasts often seen to hide the RSS feed/mp3 files while having giant buttons all over the place for Apple podcasts and spotify. They feed their listeners to those platforms on a platter.

Yes, but if you search for the podcast by name with your favorite podcast app, it will be found. Unless it is a fake podcast (like a Spotify exclusive).

Agreed, but I suspect that a lot of them who already use Google Podcasts won't be thrilled to have to switch to YouTube Music and may be looking around for choices when the date of cancellation gets closer.