If the ui calls for it I take the current position of the element and the destination then change the current to be exactly in between repeatedly on a interval. That way it moves really fast and eases into position.

One more ancient trick: back when computers were slow I would always ask myself why the data is not already in the desired format.

For example: Today you might have data in a json and turn it into a row of divs. You could store the data as a file with a row of divs which would make it a pain working with it on the backend. But on the front end you wouldn't have to parse it.

The phone doesn't modify the image but it changes the image orientation.

This is much faster but all other operations would need to work with it and when eventually served in a browser all the 100 000 viewer clients would have to rotate it themselves.

I won't argue it's wrong but it shifts complexity from image rotation to image editing and viewing.

It seems strange to add "real" rotation to the ui but the phone app is the industrial standard for image editing.