This is correct. The main reason for only allowing certain groups animated avatars was simply due to optimization, it was never about being special or “cool kids only”. Our cache system isn’t optimal (wasn’t implemented by me) and we didn’t want mobile devices, or slower connections to have any significant load times.
With that being said, it’s always better to deploy changes like this in small batches rather than forcing everyone to reset their avatar one day due to a performance issue. This was the main reason we only allowed it on certain groups.
I haven’t touched the ACP in months as @Forseenhas mostly taken over my old role and I act as a Consultant when needed, he’s welcome to enable gif avatars for all users if he wishes to do so, but understand the negative performance impact it may have and also the pain-in-the-ass it is to reset all avatars like we’ve had to do in the past.
My recommendation would be to only allow this if the current cache system is optimized; and understand it still may have a negative performance impact. They probably already know this, but @ Forum Adminshould never touch the cache settings unless you explicitly know what you are doing and have potential support from our host as it can be wonky.