Just spitballing with this but I have some thoughts that haven’t been brought up here.
I agree that the “Nope” response is most frequently performative, a way of trying to be funny to gain reactions from others, especially when it’s a sentiment that would be shared among their peers. So, most pictures of anything commonly thought as scary or gross are likely to get “Nope” responses for the sole purpose of gaining likes/reactions.
But I think we’ve sort of skirted around something that hasn’t been fully fleshed out in this thread. Many of these organisms are things that have visual cues that we have been biologically programmed to have responses to. On the flipside, rounded, fuzzy, and big eyes are often perceived as cute, think babies, ducklings, and is it any coincidence many find jumping spiders cute? Angular, slimy/slithery, and bright contrasting colors are perceived as scary/gross, think predators, snakes, and again is it any coincidence that many organisms utilize these characteristics to elicit or feign 'I’m scary", or “I’m nasty don’t eat me”? Think non-venomous caterpillars and frogs that use this as a defense mechanism.
For many of us on iNat our curiosity has conditioned us to overcome these fears. That with a little education we can find that the spider in our house poses no threat and is beneficial, which caterpillars and snakes are safe to approach/pick up, or that most wasps and bees don’t have a hidden agenda to sting you when you least expect it. The difference between here and other platforms is that we’re all nature nerds here, and so the average comfort level on iNat is much higher than other social media platforms. We’ve spent more time outdoors, researching and learning, and becoming informed. Some people aren’t as interested in nature and have other things that occupy their attention, and that’s OK. Hopefully, they’re informed enough to not senselessly kill things and catch that bug in their houses in a jar and let it go outdoors, but that might be a big ask. Everyone has their threshold, and as others have mentioned social media can be a means of educating if done properly bearing in mind their audience.
But, if you put me in front of a pit of snakes and ask if I want to jump in, I might just say “Nope”.