alt Hacker NewsThere's two separate things at play here.
One is "I don't want to use Meta products as a matter of principle", and WhatsApp's a no-go if that's your posture.
The other is "I don't want to drown in horrible, algorithm-curated junk content". Instagram is just as bad as Facebook there, but WhatsApp is definitely not the same.
100%. Whatsapp is still zuck, but it doesn't have a "feed" and that's the most important thing about it for me.