I think you're misunderstanding why Google has been criticized wrt Reader. The problem was that Google first ruined the RSS ecosystem, then pulled out of it and tried to lead users elsewhere, leaving torched earth behind.

How did Google "ruin" the RSS ecosystem? Something like 95% of the sites I have interest in following have perfectly fine RSS feeds.

Ehh, the old reader has scratched that itch for me ever since. And I like that it's a company dedicated to it rather than an irrelevant side product of a much larger company that doesn't really care about it, since it's a large part of my weekly life.

Not to my taste. I guess you must use some App to read the feed? I just launched home page on the phone and it’s far from ideal. Take a look at this screenshot. https://ibb.co/hwFJXA

Would love to know what’s your setup on the go.

If you're on iOS then Reeder[1] is a pretty good choice, because it supports a lot of different sync services[2].

The app isn't updated all that often, but then again, it doesn't really need it.

[1]: http://www.reederapp.com [2]: https://ibb.co/h008HA

Feedbin is pretty good on mobile Safari (although I normally read it via Reeder 3) - https://ibb.co/eCZR2A

Modulo sharing BazQux Reader (https://bazqux.com) has the same Google Reader simplicity plus some additional features. Try it.

I miss Google reader as well but it’s demise gave me opportunity to check out Apple News. I am actually surprised how much better it is. They aggregate from opposing news sources very nicely (for example, Fox vs MSNBC) so you get to see two sides of each story. Apple News app can really open your eyes to things you don’t explore while Google Reader seem to kept recommending similar things over and over.

Blogtrottr + Gmail filters = reader