I hate reduce motion. I sometimes use it when I am fed up with animation lags/frame drops, but after a couple days I have to turn it back on. It just feels so wrong, and it feels so slow! It takes the same amount of time as the other animations, except it is dull with nothing happening but a fade. Having the visual feedback doesn't feel as much like waiting because it's more interesting to watch, and it just feels more responsive and alive. I also have a "sense of place" like someone else mentioned, without the animations it feels like stuff is just popping up completely out of nowhere and it makes me feel almost... overwhelmed when I am using my device. Oh, I also hate the way control center doesn't bounce with reduce motion. It feels really bland and weird. The bounce drops frames occasionally with reduce motion disabled though, so.
Conclusion - I'm a sucker for eye candy. I love animations. I love when I'm using technology and I think "Wow, that looked pretty cool." Weird, I know. Part of the reason I like iOS so much are the vast amount of animations. Yes, android got tons of animation with lollipop, but many things still just feel meh. However, I hate when animations are choppy. At that point, I don't even want an animation, makes everything feel unpleasant to use. I've toyed around with using increase contrast for smoother animations but the nasty gray that setting throws across the system is completely unbearable for me.
