[jwr]

In some places (software I write) the user does come first, especially the user that spends a lot of time with the application. That's why there are no UI animations in my app, I value my users too much. If I have data to display, I display it as fast as I possibly can.

But I do have to accept that this makes the app look less "polished" or "modern" at a first glance and likely makes some people look at competitors when they come to evaluate the app.

This is somewhat similar to gyms (bear with me here): a newbie will choose a gym based on how many machines they have. An experienced person doing strength training knows that the only thing that matters is how many racks they have. Gyms know that, hence the large numbers of largely useless machines (and a very limited number of squat racks and barbells, because strength trainers are the worst customers to have: they actually do go to the gym). The decision to subscribe is being made based on the superficial.

[bee_rider]

Really the ideal gym client for some places seems to be somebody who signs up for a membership and then never uses it, so I guess maybe having too much of the stuff that an experienced lifter might want would be a net negative for them.