Same on my 8 Plus. You have to tap on the publication you want to answer to, so you have access to gifs.
“Quick reply”, via your wall, doesn’t show gif button, on iPhone.
It’s not “after a year of use”, it’s when the battery starts degrading.
The hardware performance is throttled to maximize what’s left of the battery life aka you’re due to replace it anyway so you might as well take advantage of the situation.