I always wondered why Google took this choice. With the help of this article I understand now.
RSS ist still not dead but many commercial websites and platforms are not interested in this because it is harder to monetize.
Although the advantages are obvious. An RSS feed is much more accessible in many ways. It is most times better readable, sortable, offline savable and more efficient to get. What is even better for the environment because a with scripts and external content overloaded web page has a much higher carbon fingerprint.
Google Reader died and so ATOM/RSS will because the lack of commercial success.