Hey mate, I love your gifs. You are one of the most important users here and I'd love to talk with you in the future about altering this rule for the best outcome of the subreddit.

I think the rule should still be in place for gifs, though I think the best outcome may be to lift the rule over race weekends.

I think it should still be in place for gifs because just like other images, they have an inherent advantage in the voting system over heavier content. Heavier content which equally deserves a spot on the front page, will always be pushed off in favour of gifs. This isn't fair, if the heavier content is good then it deserves an equal place. By putting gifs into self posts I feel like it alleviates some of the inherent advantages images have.

A user much more eloquent than me wrote up a fantastic summary (that I'm so utterly dismayed to see downvoted - the very fact that a well thought out post is downvoted just proves there are problems with the subreddit) of why he thinks the rule is a good idea. I'd ask you to read that and then see if that answers any of your questions.