I agree with all this, and also: don't use the "play" icon as a "current step" indicator on the steps list, I kept trying to click it. People will expect a "play" icon to be a button.
I also had no clue that you could change the viewpoint, there's no indication that this is possible aside from the subtle mouse cursor, which I didn't notice.
Actually animating the folds would be useful. This still mostly relies on the user understanding the meaning of the dotted/dashed lines, especially since the folding arrows are only shown briefly. I don't think I would be able to follow what's happening if I didn't already know how the lines work. Step 4 of the Crane is especially confusing without animation.
I also had no clue that you could change the viewpoint, there's no indication that this is possible aside from the subtle mouse cursor, which I didn't notice.
Actually animating the folds would be useful. This still mostly relies on the user understanding the meaning of the dotted/dashed lines, especially since the folding arrows are only shown briefly. I don't think I would be able to follow what's happening if I didn't already know how the lines work. Step 4 of the Crane is especially confusing without animation.