“while the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined”
Killing Reader in 2013 gets all the attention, but the quieter moves did more damage. Google pulled the RSS button out of Chrome, bought FeedBurner and then strangled it, cut RSS from Alerts, and shut off Google News feeds in 2017. A former engineer said various people inside the company were trying to kill Reader. That is what happens when the company selling ads owns the pipe that lets you read without them.