And now people are posting stories just to say they posted a new post on their main timeline...

I've had the same experience. Stories seem to have overtaken the normal posts as the more common content.

I think it's because users regard stories as acceptable for mundane, kind of boring, every day life content. Whereas singular posts come with greater expectations of quality or exceptionalism.

Seems like this should result in more likes on your average post (which should now be above average, since the weaker content has been moved to stories).

Or maybe stories and posts are generally useless drivel (posts can't be all above their average.)

My guess is that Instagram users on average probably follow more people than they did one or two years ago but probably give out about the same total number of likes.

I think stories took the best aspect of Snapchat in that people can post more engaging, expressive (video vs image), ephemeral content more frequently in a more forgiving, candid form of a curated daily snapshot of their lives.

Most stories typically aren't worthy of being memorialized in a main profile page and since people are posting so frequently it seems natural it would drive engagement through the roof if you want to keep up with your friends socially. Thoughts?

Dunno about anyone else, but I, for one, only like things from people I actually know, regardless how much I appreciate or enjoy the content posted in an ad, by an influencer, or by a company.