Not in pre-alpha. I'm sure it varies, but usually perfecting that sort of thing is part of a polish pass late development. Its actually good for a game like Pantheon that needs investors, to work on things like animations prior to releasing an important video update. A lot of us here aren't overly concerned with graphics, but there are a lot of people who won't even give a game a second look if it seems clunky.
I actually thought the animations in the most recent update were quite an upgrade from older videos. We didn't see any combat or other activities, but as far as running and walking is concerned, I thought it looked good.
I can't believe there isn't more dicussion on this subject. Animations connect the player to the game world and If I don't feel connected to my character I'll create a different one, or just not play the game.
For example, in VG I played a Bard who used daggers early on and I loved it. It felt very visceral and immersive. But when I switched to swords, it just wasn't the same experience. So, I had to use a sword with a dagger to get that same dagger animation.
So, I think animations, on the whole, are very important in an mmorpg. Melee animations should be very martial artsy and quick. And casters, on the other hand, should look very deliberate, demonstrative and graceful. Hopefully the devs share the same feelings on this.
I am thinking a lot of it has to do with Brads recent post about the plan they have for game creation, he mentined one of the final phases will be animations. I completely agree with you that animations are vital to the real feel. if we get out of Alpha into Beta and the animations are not in or clunky I will be a little worried but not till that point.
xan