I have the exact same use-case: big hierarchy of feeds, and just reading the ones I feel like at the moment.
I switched to Newsblur, and apart from some small issues with the UI (which is getting better), I've been really happy. The iOS app is also nice. The downside is of course that it costs money, but it really isn't that much IMHO.
I also switched to newsblur, and I'm pretty happy with it. The UI is definitely clunky, but after you get used to it, it's really not so bad. It's free for some number of feeds, has a sane business model (i.e. it has any business model), the entire thing is open source, and it has an open API so you can build your own client if you wish!
I've not felt the need to try any others since switching
I've actually tried Feedly first for a number of weeks and it drove me half insane for similar reasons to that of jwz. I switched to Newsblur and after a few buttons it goes into 'works almost like Google Reader' mode.
I switched to Newsblur, and apart from some small issues with the UI (which is getting better), I've been really happy. The iOS app is also nice. The downside is of course that it costs money, but it really isn't that much IMHO.