This is something a lot of people miss. No one minds Google shuttering Reader for good reasons, but they failed to communicate said reasons, and left us to speculate. That speculation has settled on things that make a lot of people feel bad about where Google is heading.
1 million active users is not "popular" in Google terms. So-called tech "influencers" like to believe that they are more useful/valuable than any random user, but guess what, you aren't.