i'll come to you straight, i respect you that much. and as a poster and not a mod.
they're annoying as heck. they do slow things down and have nothing to do with what's going on. it's spam as its basic level, and when it's not, its kinda overkill. reek's not the only one who has complained about it either, fwiw.
we have threads specifically for certain things, pics, gifs, youtube, and while they are appreciated every now and then, the overabundance of them everywhere really pulls me out of enjoying the flow of conversations and whatnot. i'm not saying that a well placed gif doesn't have its merit or it's place, but they usually get lost in the wave of other ones.
as a mod: it's annoying as heck to have to check every single video to make sure they are hype appropriate