My favorite thing about mpv is that it works under the console using framebuffer or drm. This can be used with configuration or scripting for image viewing, reading pdfs, and more without needing needing a lot of specialized tools, especially on non-linux platforms where graphical framebuffer tools aren't available. Tmux +(e)links + mpv can nearly completely obviate the need for a graphical environment and removes a lot of distracting things from view.