Do you think TikTok view counts are real?

Alternatively, is there anything stopping TikTok from making up view count numbers?

Facebook made up video view counts. So what?

TikTok can show a video to as many, or as few, people as it wants, and the number will go up and down. If the retention is high enough, for some users, to show ads, which are the videos that the rules I'm describing apply to with certainty, why can't it apply those rules to organic videos too?

It's interesting. You don't need bots to create the illusion of engagement. Unless you work there, you can't really prove or disprove that user activity on many platforms is authentic.