yep ^ it also provided a way to work on your algo/interview questions for a few more months without having to worry about money. the job hunt can take upwards of 3 or 4 months, and it's a lot easier to get a good job if you already have an income.
Did this change occur recently? I've noticed in the past 3-4 months Instagram has become a lot slower. To be fair, it's started to gain some speed in the past month, but I'd be interested to see how this increase in latency coincided with the migration to React Native.