I’d guess the simple answer may be that people don’t care/know, but for those that have ditched Facebook for whatever reason, yet still use Instagram, it’s a little surprising.
Is it partly a result of it being a more focused/limited form of social media that filters out some of the stuff people didn’t like from Facebook?
TLDR: It doesn’t matter who makes the platform, rather what the platform is like. Insta isn’t great but it’s so much better than FB.
I use Instagram a little bit. I’ve ditched Facebook a very long time ago, at least 7 years if not more. Whether or not it’s from Meta never made a difference.
Things were different when I joined Insta, it was a passable way to find art and collect images and follow artists. I was never a fan, but considering I had to abandon DeviantArt (similar story to Reddit) Insta was the next best option available back then. Artstation was too CG and just getting started.
So yes, the reason I keep using it is because there isn’t really anything better when it comes to finding visual art in a broad variety of media. It’s a shit app, it has too much of things I don’t care about, but it is less stupid than FB so it gets a pass.
If there was a solid artist focused platform available today, that would let you follow art and artists of absolutely any media/genre, collect images and communicate etc, I’d jump in a heartbeat. I’d still keep insta solely for the chat, as over the years it became the only communication channel I have with some people.