Having heard about Niri previously, I really didn't like the sound of it. Seeing the movement with hotkeys shown with each movement... well... that completely changed my perspective. I will have to give it a try.
The author linked their config file from the article, and it includes this:
// Animation settings.
animations {
// Uncomment to turn off all animations.
// off
I think it's boilerplate from the default config file, which would imply that the video they showed is not the 'animations off' version, if that's not already clear from the presence of animations.