After I wrote some thoughts about what I'm looking for in an RSS reader, I realized that the only application that comes close to what I was describing is BlogBridge. It has prioritization of feeds and items via "Starz", and ties into social services (both a custom network for sharing keywords and ratings, and a direct connection to my del.ico.us account).
It's got some room for improvement - my biggest beefs are resource hogging and the seeming inability of java apps to open URLs in a browser without bringing it to the front. But they aren't fatal flaws - only annoying.
I took another quick look at Shrook, and while I like many things about it (the paned UI that pans out of the way as you drill down) it just doesn't offer the innovative coolness that BlogBridge is working on...