Are walkstyles a thing in your daily life?

Not possible for the game to mirror real life. In real life every individual has a gait (i.e. walk style) that is unique to them. It is pretty much as unique as a fingerprint for those who are trained in a how to fully analyze an individual's gait (and in the use of software that does gait analysis).

That said, there are broader categories within which you could classify some gaits, which is what the game is emulating, and in that respect there is basis on real life, but as with all things Sims they are highly exaggerated. That said, there are people irl who have pretty exaggerated gaits themselves.
My own gait, for example, is exaggerated enough that I was picked on for it in grade school and middle school. (Kids are so cruel!) Fortunately in High school I was bigger than everyone else and that stopped.

I don't think they're supposed to be realistic, they're just there to give sims more individuality. Most of them are pretty cheesy and overexaggerated in my opinion so I don't really use them but a couple are ok

I'm a people-watcher by nature, and I've seen all of the walks that are in the game, including the outliers. The real-world versions come in various degrees, of course, and the vast majority are nowhere near as exaggerated as the game version. But yeah. People do walk their walks.

I use the default walk for most sims, but the special ones I most often use are the feminine, swagger, perky (bouncy?), and occasionally snooty styles. They are exaggerated and cartoonish like all things in TS4, but bear some resemblance to how I have seen certain people walk in real life. I actually don't even remember what the other styles are.

I tend to use the feminine walk not so much for feminine sims per se, but rather specifically for my feminine sims that wear mostly heels. I.e., some of my girly girl sims who wear lots of flouncy dresses, makeup, etc., don't use the feminine walk style because they mostly wear flats or wedges. To me, as someone who spent a significant amount of my life wearing heels everyday (but not so much now), the "feminine" style really just mimics the way you have to place your feet to walk comfortably in heels.

I didn’t realize people paid so much attention to this. I used to set walk styles on every sim I made. But lately I generally forget and most just have the default style and I rarely notice the walk style of background sims. I didn’t even know anything was wrong with the way male celebrity sims walked until I read the patch notes because if I’m not playing them I completely ignore them.

I don't see people walk like that in real life, I think it's just meant to add some character to the sims.

I don't really mind the default walks that we can set in CAS although I don't use most of them. The emotional walk styles bother me a lot and I use a mod to disable them. I also use a mod to remove the over exaggerated pregnancy walk as well.

aww boo you just excluded my favourites creepy walk is exactly what i do on my way to fridge and to pet my cat

its definitely more animated and silly than real walking but I prefer many of the other walks to default one as it does give sim some character

i don't mind if its not mega realistic to always walk in the weird way as sims to me never was about real life

I sometimes see some weird walk styles in real life. A lot of guys who are bodybuilders (or just want to pose as being them) do the tough walk and variations of it. I also see variations of feminine walk and swagger walk.
I like all Sims 4 walk styles. They don't have to be realistic, I don't care about it, I love the weird stuff like goofy walk and creepy walk. My own Sims use the default one mostly, because I never remember to change it while I'm on CAS and I'm too lazy to go there just to change it. My own Sims are also mostly just average boring Sims, they don't even need fun walk styles. It's the same with clothes, my Sims wear boring everyday outfits, but I enjoy seeing all the weird Sims fashion combinations on randomly generated townies, just like walk styles. I wish I could be creative like that.

Ahh...the Ministry of Silly Walks...

No the walkstyles aren't based on real life, just fictional walkstyles. I find that fun in my game.