No they are not? You might be thinking of cheque-style payments (recipient pulls, with proof of the sender's authorisation) versus giro-style payments (sender pushes, with their own authorisation). The latter are obviously much more secure.
Do you pay your groceries with SEPA instant transfers?
Merchants can't just slap a QR code with their banking details on their website or cash registers. Wero offers a convenient layer on top of SEPA transfers, and you can argue EPC QR codes are already enough (though most people would disagree).
Additionally, Wero provides a full payment solution that's integrated with many third party processors, and is basically an evolution of Payconiq and iDEAL. Sure, it does use SEPA rails, but there's a lot more to it. And that's the part that will need to interoperate with more than a dozen mobile wallets in Europe, inside and outside the Eurozone.
I also have the option to pay by scanning a non-QR non-SEPA-Instant code generated by my bank app, through some other third-party system.
At some stores, but not the supermarket, I have the option to pay by SEPA Instant. It's more common with online payments, but a store could also accept it. The main problem is that SEPA Instant payments aren't always instant (thanks to USA-imposed KYC/AML rules), and if one isn't, then I'd have to come back later to collect the goods, or pay twice and hope to get a refund later.