Right now, there’s no iOS RSS readers that will filter duplicate stories. I can’t imagine how adblocking would get implemented.
But IIRC there were also sites that let you pay for a full feed and I think something good could have come out of it.
The original point is simply that RSS would have gone the way of the web, in terms of the presence of advertising, had it become mainstream.
There being workarounds or other models possible doesn't change that and it also applies to the web today. As another commentor pointed out, RSS would have unique difficulties for adblockers as well.
But lets stick to the technology, first things first, how are you going to get me to subscribe to your feed? I just don't see it happening. Finding subscribers is incredibly hard.
You might be able to get one feed into my aggregator but I just press delete?
If it has as many postings as this one...
https://news.ycombinator.com/rss
...they all vanish when I press delete.
It isn't like you only have to obtain my email address. But if it was it would be easy for google to copy paste the gmail filter.
The point is that RSS was/less overrun by advertising than the web because of cultural reasons, not thanks to something inherent to the technology.