I actually really like the developer’s rationale for why they use an anime character as the mascot.

The whole blog post is worth reading, but the TL;DR is this:

Of course, nothing is stopping you from forking the software to replace the art assets. Instead of doing that, I would rather you support the project and purchase a license for the commercial variant of Anubis named BotStopper. Doing this will make sure that the project is sustainable and that I don’t burn myself out to a crisp in the process of keeping small internet websites open to the public.

At some level, I use the presence of the Anubis mascot as a “shopping cart test”. If you either pay me for the unbranded version or leave the character intact, I’m going to take any bug reports more seriously. It’s a positive sign that you are willing to invest in the project’s success and help make sure that people developing vital infrastructure are not neglected.

Adding on to what you’re saying: I think it’s pretty clear that Morrowind and Oblivion are more focused on a first-person perspective for the player character with third-person being a bit of a secondary concern. As such, it seems to me like the focus of the third person animations is on matching what the player would see in first person, especially since they can switch between the two with a single button press.

For example, when the player holds the “A” key to move pure left while keeping their view straight, it certainly seems more natural from a first-person perspective that they’re strafing left rather than turning their torso left with their head and arms awkwardly straining at a 90° angle (try this at home, it feels weird).

The alternative here would be for the character to actually turn their whole body left when you hold the “A” key in third-person, but then have their view (i.e. their head and arms) snap 90° to the right whenever you switch back to first-person, which seems odd and immersion breaking.

That being said, obviously it does look quite jank from a third-person perspective for a player to be strafing all the time, even when they’re in non-combat scenarios. This isn’t helped by aging animations, either.