A way forward for RSS
The software’s job is to bring people articles that they’d like, or need, to read. Think of the app as a reader, not as an RSS reader strictly. (How the articles come in is not important. RSS will still play a major role, but it should be invisible to everyone except those geeks who get it.)
The user interface has to evolve to be much less email-like, and everything has to get way easier than it is now.
I know I’m in the minority, but I still use RSS more than anything else to get news.