Personally, I'm on the fence as far as animations are concerned.
I don't play Project Zomboid for the graphics. If I want a zombie game where the developers spend more time working on the visual aspects of the game rather than game play, then I'd just play 7 Days to Die instead.
The animation update will be released, the complainers will move onto the next thing promised from the developers, and the cycle will continue.
From a player who hasn't touch upon mods yet, I'm personally looking forward to more guns, NPC's and vehicles a lot more than animations. The map system and the hidden cache's have been great additions to the game in my opinion, and I'd like to see a lot more things implemented along those lines.
Toodles