[Kapura]

If Google had announced the end of reader, but allowed you to integrate the RSS feeds into Google+, all the nerds would have just complained that Google was killing a good product to try and bolster a shitty one (not that I think G+ is shitty). It's always easy after the fact to say that Google could have done this to ease the passing of Reader, but face facts: There's nothing you can do on the internet where people won't complain. Deprecating Reader in favour of g+ would have been a cheap replacement at best, and at worst it could have been viewed as poisoning the water so you'll have to drink Fanta.