There are so many (decades) of excellent demos!

The "blending adjacent frames together for YouTube is definitely cheating" reminds me of the quip from a Razor1911 prod, "Insert No Coins" (https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=55991):

"Our intro looks better in realtime than on YouTube"

Some relatively recent (within the last decade or so) favs of mine:

Neonsky by Ephidrena (Amiga, AGA): https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=67789

subside by Unique (Amiga, AGA) I dig mostly because it takes a sample, "Computers aren't the thing; they're the thing that gets us to the thing." from Halt & Catch Fire (which I mostly hated as a show) and puts it to good use: https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=67140

"another one"/"Number One" by CNCD & Fairlight (this was ostensibly made in @notchvfx@graphics.social [as were some other more recent CNCD & FLT prods like ziphead maybe?] It inspired me to get a laptop with an RTX1080 to take a class back in 2019 which was a fun couple of days! Now, if only I could figure out how to do that sort of stuff for income instead of a happy money sink? I sold that laptop in 2020 though, so I would need something newer [hopefully lighter?] with a decent [presumably now better?] GPU for such fun. ;) : https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=77399

CC: @cwebber@social.coop