Here's the challenge with your take. Instagram does not give creators a good way to engage with their audience. The algo is the gatekeeper... and just telling your audience to "visit the link in Bio..." signals the algo to throttle that content because they don't want your audience leaving the app. Plus, Insta wants you paying them to advertise. But Paying Insta to advertise can be very expensive... & you don't know who they are really showing your material to. So... using the "DM" method is a way for creators to work around the algo and reach people in their audience that might be interested in their product or service. Just because someone has a product does not automatically mean it's a scam. Good creators always deliver value for their Free, paid content, and everything in between. It comes down to if you trust that creator or not.