Okay, this thread took off so I'm very late, but:
Yeah, but gifs can be easily downloaded and moved, gifvs can't.
Who the hell downloads gifs and attaches them to emails? I know gifs are old fashioned, but really??
Also, from the article linked earlier:
Imgur says it will always give users the option to download the actual GIF file, but then you're giving up all the advantages of GIFV.
Forgive my French, but no you bloody well do not. It's much quicker to look at the thing in the first place; that's not an advantage you lose whether you decide to download it or not. Once you've decided to download it (again, who the hell does that, but apparently someone does), then it takes just as long as the original gif, yes. But at least it only takes an age to download the few you decide to download instead of every single one you want to look at (which is surely a heck of a lot more).
The vast majority of gifs are reaction gif things you've seen a million times. Who's going to download those? I'd really rather just not have to wait all day to find out it's one I've seen a million times, thanks.
/rant