have you ever lived with cats? there's a lot behind those eyes that's not just instinct, IMO. they are intelligent & display emotions. they play jokes and they show gratitude and offense. they hold grudges and express forgiveness. they rejoice and they mourn. thsi cat currently expressing his desire to get out of the house for a bit, he wouldn't be running back to thank me for letting him play in the grass and leaves if it was just instinctively wanting to hunt.
i have another cat who goes in and out, and he brings in chipmunks often from the woods. it's true that some he eats, but the majority he seems to be inviting in as friends. he sits there and purrs while they eat his food and drink his water, and he doesn't harm them. i've watched him grow up getting better and better at catching them unharmed, and i can't even count how many i've had to catch in the house and bring back outside. he gets really pissy with me if he sees me doing this so we've had to contrive elaborate distractions and pretend losing them was 'accidental' lol
just to say -- as most any pet owner will tell you -- animals have a complexity and intelligence that's way beyond simple instinctive behavior, and they will do things contrary to instinct. of course different animals have varying degrees of this kind of behavior, and even different individuals. and of course it's on a simpler level than humans - but humans show the same kind of mix of instinct & reason & emotion. just the other day i was telling a co-worker who recently became a first-time cat owner, it's not that they are so much like us, but really, we are just like them -- we do the same things, only we do it at a more sophisticated level.