For me at least, having Reader shut down made me realize that depending on products delivered for free is ultimately unsustainable - I have no control over those services and if I can't figure out how that company is making money from me, there's little justification for that provider to continue providing that service, unmodified, for perpetuity. Self-hosted services are the only ones that you can truly rely on.
I'm hoping I'm not the only one that has come to this conclusion.
Unfortunately, the fact that you're paying for a product isn't a particularly better signal that it's sustainable, unless you individually can cover the costs of running that product. I've had for-pay services I used discontinued because they weren't profitable or because they were bought by another company and deprecated (Slicehost) even though they were profitable.
It seems like a better strategy is to assume that no service or company is forever, and demand reasonable ways to export your data or setup in the event they shut down (and time to do that export before they turn off.)
I'm hoping I'm not the only one that has come to this conclusion.