I don't know if "sub-Amazonian" is a term, but basically I mean not the Inca, and not Brazil, cause when I think of South America before 1492, I think of the Incan Empire, and Amazonian groups. That's about it. But there is a huge chunk of space missing out there, seeing as the Inca didn't control (modern day) Argentina, or southern Chile. So what was going on in that part of the continent c. 1400-1500? Was there anything approaching the level of development found with the Inca or Mesoamerican peoples? Was there conflict with the Inca... trade... did they know each other existed?
Well, south of the Inca Domains you could find the Mapuche, at least in the chilean side, the Argentine side is more muddly to me, (AKA I haven't studied it as much), but I can speak about the Mapuche.
This is roughly starting south of the Maule river, which is the frontier accorded by both groups, if the story of the Battle of Maule is correct, north of that the territory was nominally Incan, and there's some recent findings that show the current Santiago de Chile is built over a relatively large Inca city.
Did they have a level of development as advanced as the Inca or Mesoamerican people?
Err... that's a relative answer. The way the Mapuche society was built was mostly on a system of kinship between a multitude of different families linked through intermarriage and where the familiar system was fundamental. The valleys were densely populated and there's some speculation that they had developed a system of communications that relied on the rivers of the region, that's still up to debate though and applies mostly to the Huilliche. (Southern Mapuche, so to say) They certainly had farming, a pottery tradition that extended back centuries, llamas as well as other domestic animals and were sedentary.
They had a complex society in the sense that they weren't hunter gatherers I guess, but then again, they weren't city builders, living instead in loosely connected villages, they did however build Chemamülls, totem-like statues that could reach some 2 meters or more of height.
There was a degree of interaction between the Mapuche and the Inca, as both groups have recounts of a battle between them (the Mapuche banded together during war, but otherwise lived as separate independent family groups), my memory is more fuzzy on this point but I recall they had adopted metalworking already too.
More to the south than the Reloncavi Sound you found the Patagonia, which was exclusively inhabited by hunter gatherers.
This answer is mostly built off "Los Antiguos Mapuches del Sur" of José Bengoa, loosely paraphrased as it's in spanish and can't check it directly right now, if you need more specific quotes you'd have to wait until the morning.
The Southern Cone contains incredible geographic diversity: coastal regions, the Andes and its foothills, the Chaco, the forests of Mesopotamia, the Pampas, Patagonia, and Tierra del Fuego to name a few. Within these environments were dozens of indigenous groups that were loosely related through cultural exchange networks, similar languages (sometimes), and long-distance trade but whose societies were remarkably varied.
Unlike many indigenous societies in the Andes, since their arrival in the Southern Cone, most indigenous groups were hunter-gatherer societies, but over time, more and more of them adopted sedentary and semi-sedentary lifestyles as agricultural practices spread south from the Andes and from what is today Brazil. For example, the Mapuche began to use slash-and burn agricultural practices to grow maize, potatoes, beans, squash, chili peppers, and quinoa. They also domesticated the llama, hunted, and fished. Groups nearer the sea brought sea resources inland like shells and fish to trade while inland groups brought agricultural products. Southern Mapuche bands exchanged pine nuts, fruit, and wild game. Mapuche peoples are also well known for weaving textiles of amazing intricacy using plant fibers and animal hair. Other groups like the Eastern Bolivian Guaraní speakers and the Diaguita later grew pumpkins and sweet potatoes.
The Guaraní moved into the Río de la Plata region about 3000 years ago, developing slash-and-burn agriculture. They used wood and bark to construct huge longhouses which housed dozens of families (sometimes hundreds of people) near where they grew “manioc, maize, beans, peanuts, squash, and sweet potatoes using digging sticks, as well as the collection of roots, fruits, and cotton” according to Barbara Ganson in her book The Guaraní under Spanish Rule (18). They began gathering the famous yerba maté, which remains popular in Paraguay and Argentina to this day. Women wove baskets, collected honey, and made pottery. Ganson also mentions that Guaraní women “made a mild alcoholic beverage called canví,” a type of maize beer (19).
Groups like the Tehuelche in Patagonia were primarily nomadic before contact. They hunted guanaco, deer, fish, coypo, and ñandú. The guanaco was the most important animal in Patagonia, which provided both sustenance and material for clothing and shelter. For them and other indigenous groups (like the Mapuche), it had symbolic and religious value as well. Often, Tehuelche settlements were established near streams, rivers, and lakes where they could take advantage of freshwater fish and shellfish. Plant materials, wood, and bone were all used to make trinkets, instruments, and tools for personal uses and to trade with other groups. Archaeological sites turn up lots of pottery shards, both decorated and plain, and some of it was probably made by Guaraní groups and then traded to reach the groups farther south. In the hilly areas around Tandil, indigenous groups also consumed guanaco, fish, armadillo, and rhea. There is also evidence that they gathered fruits from the chañar and algarrobo trees.
Even farther to the south in the Tierra del Fuego, people constructed canoes and other tools that allowed them to subsist on diets that included sealions. They also ate shellfish and seabirds. Local plants were fashioned together with sealion and guanaco bones into harpoons and chisels.
So there was a lot going on in the Southern Cone before the arrival of Europeans. The societies were complex, varied, and changing, but they were mostly semi-sedentary and nomadic societies with much lower population densities than in the Andes (and maybe the Amazon if recent studies are corroborated). For this reason, Spain was less interested in these areas since they could not easily subjugate the populations and exploit their labor.