[pjc50]

GIF represents a particular set of forced compromises: no audio, no controls, reasonably short, right-click-save-as available. The inefficiency of the file format also means people keep them dimensionally small.

HTML5 video doesn't have those constraints, and there isn't a separate type of "thing" which is an unobtrusive video. This isn't about the codec, but guaranteeing a way of presentation. Maybe if videos could be loaded into <IMG> tags with those constraints?

GIF also behaves a lot better than video when you have lots of them on a page.

[RubyPinch]

How are those constraints useful when they are completely decided by the website and not the user?

"but you could disable video so you don't have issues regarding videos or some similar strawman"

Well, that would be a bit extreme, and if we want to take that angle, sure, but then I should be allowed to take the angle of "if it can be disabled by default, then instead it could be muted and paused by default"