Yes. Atom is very much a derivative of RSS. IIUC there was sort of a split between RSS v3 (which never really ended up landing) and Atom hence one had to pick a different name. If the world was a perfect place Atom probably would have been called RSS v3 and people would not be as confused. But at the time it probably wasn’t clear which spec would end up succeeding.
Yes. Atom is very much a derivative of RSS. IIUC there was sort of a split between RSS v3 (which never really ended up landing) and Atom hence one had to pick a different name. If the world was a perfect place Atom probably would have been called RSS v3 and people would not be as confused. But at the time it probably wasn’t clear which spec would end up succeeding.