I don’t know why people are underestimating Instagram Reels. Instagram may be becoming more of an entertainment app like TikTok but it is still a social network. All content creators care about is engagement, and having the ability to push your short video into your Stories and your follower’s main feed increases your chances of it being seen instead of relying on an algorithm.
Instagram Reels might have the same concept but a.) different demographic, with TikTok gaining the lion's share of the younger generation and b.) recommendation algorithm, where TikTok explicitly pushes you newer content from barely known creators, while Instagram relies on the Facebook way of likes, shares, comments, hence giving you the same content from the same celebrities over and over.