The really pathetic thing about this... Linux has had the capability to do this for years. About 20 years ago, I was playing with compiz, and turned on every single effect. Window dragging with transparency, bubbly windows that would snap into place, windows that would resize with an elastic-looking snap, switching entire desktops with cube animations. Animations were smooth and fluid, and didn't even drop a frame. That was 20 years ago, running on really low end Intel integrated graphics. There's no excuse for this laggyness. These are basic animations that GPUs should handle just fine. I mean hell, we were rendering full 3d environments with realistic water effects like 10+ years ago on GPUs that can't even begin to compare with what we have today. Your GPU can't even handle a tiny little animated button today? WTF?

Interestingly the animation when an app is opened has actually been sped up in iOS 26!

On macOS you can speed up/disable the animations using some hidden defaults (you can easily find that on the internet).

Personally I like the animations; I find them well-done on macOS. They serve a purpose but are not “too much” either IMHO.