Just tested reddit. It works fine with .webp I don't have an instagram account

Try https://www.reddit.com/settings/profile

There are so many uneven areas of Reddit where WebP doesn't work. Old reddit, profile support, mod tools, etc.

I'm convinced that this is because of the prevalent MVP culture in modern software engineering. Instead of holistically looking at a new feature request such as "support webp images" we break it down into parts (e.g. "serve webp" "accept webp upload here" "accept webp upload there") and then we call it a MVP when only the highest priority items are done.

That doesn’t mean it’s dead, it rather shows sheer incompetence of the web dev departments of these wonderful companies for whom webp or avif aren’t images, I guess.

Instagram's image uploading interface is klunky compared to Mastodon which is entirely unfunded.

This shows the unfortunate power of distribution.

It doesn't matter if the alternative is technically superior once the majority use the mainstream thing.