Motion can establish hierarchy or convey a change of state. It should never be the only way a visitor can understand a page. The static state needs to be intentional enough that reduced motion is not a lesser experience.
The practical test
For media, this means a visible poster, honest play state, and a fallback when autoplay or decoding does not happen. A pause button is only useful when it controls the thing it names.
Related practice
Use this note as a prompt for a concrete review: identify the current public route, the source that owns it, the people it needs to serve, and the failure state it must survive.