Because that thing was infinitely useful. I was able to read 100+ articles without burning out, got the only things that I wanted to see, filter what I didn't want and was able to track the most interesting sites.

I've skimmed everything in 15 minutes, mark/star/whatever anything with unprecedented speed.

It was the ultimate user-curated feed, without all the cruft of today's feed. It was mine, tailored for me, by me.

...and whole thing was keyboard-drivable.