RSS is dead, that's why Google killed Reader
plus.google.com
plus.google.com
I do agree that the end-user usefulness of something like RSS may have been overstated, but RSS remains a useful tool in some contexts. For example, most (all?) Android/iOS news widgets make use of RSS. Google News also makes use of RSS. I'm sure there are many such examples.
I would've been happy to pay for Google Reader. Truth is I'll move to another RSS service and be happy to pay. I'm not sure what it costs Goole to run Reader so this is all conjecture.