Check out AntennaPod for Android in the Play Store. It is a great podcast RSS client and it comes with a database of podcasts you can search. You can add your own too. For textual stuff I use Flym, but I do not know if that is still in development or not so verify either way.
So yes RSS is still great. Biggest issue is some sources have discontinued in favor of walling content in their own apps which is not exactly user friendly.
Feeder user here. agree with the paywall. not just in-app, a lot of good content is walled if accessed though browsers. of course i can revisit my feeds and remove the walled ones but then it would take a lot of time to check them one by one (added per topic).
such a let-down to be teased by a paragraph or two of good writing only to be stopped by a paywall below.
is like the blueball of reading
I do not use the Aurora Store, no experience either way. I have used F-Droid and and like it. My phone though I do not side load. I get from Google Play Store only. Also makes stuff easy to recommend if it is there. Bad part of Google Play Store is almost impossible to find FOSS stuff. Have to know what your looking for.