[windexh8er]

Adjusting the animation scaling down is one of the first things I do on any Android phone I buy. I've also changed it for many friends and family who immediately ask how I've managed to make their phones "faster". Not a single person has ever asked me to turn it back. Yet this option is buried in "Developer Tools", so - yes agreed that the "Accessibility Settings" is a far better place. I do also wish it was adjustable in 10% steps all the way down to off. I think 0.3x is likely the sweet spot.

[bombela]

On a Google phone Android, turning off all animations doesn't replace it with a loading icon. It just makes the phone faster.

In Android 12 the Google Android launcher (the desktop, with the non removable Google assistant/search bar), doesn't obey turning off animation. I moved to the Nova launcher.

Like the parent post, every friends and family member I showed how to turn off animations was very pleased with the speedup. Nobody ever asked to turn it back on.