The first time I heard "Is aliexpress dropshipping is dead " was in July last year.
And since then many people have earned 100s of thousands of dollars.
Maybe someone in the forum will write this same answer in May 2019 to someone asking is aliexpress dropshipping dead.
Yes. Many people are jumping on it but still there is room to be successful if you know the ins and outs of the business.
Maybe those old Instagram tactis are overused and for any newbie it's not going to be easy getting sales with those tactics.
You need to adapt to changes quickly and keep up with industry trends.
People are moving on with Google adwords, Snapchat, Twitter.. there just many other traffic sources you can use.
Just my thoughts here.