I agree they're functional. It isn't like they're just stick men or anything. But with so many tasty mods kicking around it's hard to feel motivated to try one without more immediate evidence of care and attention.
It could be that some mods with poor graphics are actually amazing, but it's the first indicator I look at anyway :]
I think the deal with this mod is that it was made before the graphics were released. So he did some in game print screens and came up with his own animations. It was a rough road back then if you have 0 artistic talent.