rss feeds are simple to set up.
rss feeds are the lowest-barrier way for a creator to publish content to an audience without compromising ownership of the relationship.
the creator does not need to set up an email server. the subscriber's rss reader handles notifying the user if necessary.
creators do not need to even keep a list of their subscribers: just publish the feed and let users use whatever rss client they want.
if a user wants to unsubscribe, they do not need to ask the publisher to remove them from a list. because there is no list.
genius.
rss is a neutral, non-monetized standard.
there is no content algorithm or attention capture mechanisms.
in that regard, rss is an improvement over web2 platforms.
however, rss's has some downsides compared to web2 platfroms.
features like comment sections, payments, and private feeds are complicated to implement because rss does not have an authentication layer.
personal servers might help with that, which is why i'm building %feeds on urbit.