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Good day everyone, I am a native Chinese speaker. I am puzzled about why the word "being" appears in sentences. I quoted two sentences as examples.
1. Customers in Central, Kowloon and the New Territories reported being unable to access the internet via their smartphones for several hours.
2. I couldn’t sleep, despite being very tired.

I re-wrote both sentences to
1. Customers in Central, Kowloon and the New Territories reported they were unable to access the internet via their smartphones for several hours.
2. I couldn’t sleep, despite of the fact that I was very tired.

It is obvious there is a verb to be in both sentences and I know a noun should be behind "despite". I guess (I am not sure) when a clause interpret in noun form, just change the verb to be into "being". If it is a verb to do, just change it into "doing". It is the same case in the first sentence. Therefore,
1. Customers in Central, Kowloon and the New Territories reported they failed to access the internet via their smartphones for several hours.
can be interpreted in
1. Customers in Central, Kowloon and the New Territories reported failing to access the internet via their smartphones for several hours.

I hope you can help me to clarify, thanks.

Yes, report Ving is equivalent to report + nominal clause.