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I think it can't be understated how important it is to able to rotate, and move the playback forwards and backwards.

It's almost like being able to hold the part in your hands, examine the reasoning behind its structure and "debug" your mental model of it by playing its operation back and forth.

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Exactly, having control over the artifact is so empowering for learning and curiosity. A simple image or gif wouldn't be nearly as engaging.

It really reminded me of the educational 'toys' that I used while I was attending Montessori school. You could go at your own speed and come to understand a concept by letting you play with all the constituent parts when you felt like it - or if you saw someone else doing it and joined in.

One of the 'toys' I remember from my Montessori experience was these long bead chains. They had all different sizes, e.g. one would be a chain of 8 segments, each containing 8 beads on a rod between the joints. The '8' chain would be blue and have an associated blue cube of beads 8x8x8. I remember the '10' chain and cube was something really to be seen.

We also had really large blocks, because someone dropped one on my head.

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