That 'lack of animation' is nowhere more obvious than in Ghibli movies for crying out loud. I'm currently rewatching them on Netflix (atm Laputa) and your 'panning and zooming' is exactly what happens in Ghibli movies. This isn't some revelation though, as it has always been the core difference between Ghibli and Disney: Disney movies have dynamic camera perspectives and fast action, whereas Ghibli movies offer more details, but are static outside of short bursts of more dynamic scenes.
This is the same for all of anime, except there are plenty of shows that offer much more dynamic camera work than Ghibli, like Sidonia, Attack on Titan or Hoseki no Kuni.
Ghibli isn't special. It's just more known among the mainstream, that's all.