But I do know some of the moves are:
"If you don't throw yourself, your wrist/elbow/shoulder/whatever will be dislocated or broken."
And so the student, knowing this, saves themselves. IE the idea of rolling with the punches.
Which is to say, some moves are to be judged on the possible result, not the one you saw.
Whether that applies in this case, I don't know.
Aikido demonstration is cooperative. Uke and nage. Somebody throws and somebody receives the throw. I'm not one of those "Aikido is fake" people, but Aikido has no tournaments and isn't represented in MMA for a reason.
If you're in a real fight and properly distributing your weight, things you see in Aikido just don't happen. That's not shade on Aikido. It's a worthy effort for anyone who wants to devote themselves to it. It's just not a real representation of what happens in combat and this is much more true about Aikido than just about any other martial art you could practice.
The philosophy behind what the submission author wrote is strong. I was pretty moved by it and it effectively communicates what most people call beginner mindset. That mindset has brought me a ton of success in life.
Also there's nothing fake about standing joint locks. Aikido just isn't the only martial art where you can learn them. Wing Chun, Hapkido, (Japanese) Jujutsu, etc...
But standing joint locks will only help you in dealing with belligerent drunks, not defending yourself against someone with real intent on your harm.
Aikido is beautiful and historically/culturally relevant.
Judo and Jiu Jitsu have Uke and Tori for demonstrations. Same concept. Except when Uke gets thrown, they really get thrown. They will cooperate with the move but they aren’t providing the momentum.
I don’t know if Aikido is “fake”, but I do think it’s more of a performance than a martial art.
Still, the annals of Stand Up, Don't Fall Down comedy eight minutes of Jesse Enkamp entering a Jiu-Jitsu tournament to Prove It Doesn't Work still entertains - the training montage is priceless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAJ2vt8wUbY
Getting back to Aikido, one master is of the opinion it's not in MMA as its either ineffectual non damaging ritual OR it's high damage, crippling, lethal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtibobLK56I
Both are true. Pulling off some of these moves in real world situations is absurdly hard -- much harder than other techniques you could be learning. But also the reason people throw themselves is because for some of these moves the alternative is the damage described. It's more complicated than that -- every traditional martial art has its issues.
I stress again that I'm not throwing any shade at it. It's one of those things that's poorly understood by outsiders and even most modern practitioners. There are Aikidokas out there who can absolutely whoop ass in a standup fight -- it's just that the level of nuance and understanding within the art form to get there is immense (comparatively). But then that's defeating the point. The whole point is about _not_ fighting. Spare everyone the damage. If that's your guiding philosophy and you're still intent on training, Aikido is for you.
Usually that happens during free sparring at exams, where it's more likely that the ukes miss cooperating properly.
Or, you know, you can just let go...