I'm a bit more optimistic. Email is already mainstream thankfully, and newsletters are becoming more popular thanks to Substack et al, so that makes a great beach head--"nobody uses it" isn't a barrier there. If newsletters (both "regular" ones and aggregation ones, like The Sample/Refind) continue to become more popular and thus shift more content consumption over to email clients, it'll be easier in turn for reader apps to gain more users, hopefully starting a virtuous cycle.
I don't know if this model would ever become more popular than FB/Twitter/etc, but I think it could become popular enough that anyone who wants to ditch social media can do so without feeling like they're missing out on something.
I don't know if this model would ever become more popular than FB/Twitter/etc, but I think it could become popular enough that anyone who wants to ditch social media can do so without feeling like they're missing out on something.