Crop Rotation, Deadly Rollick, Culling the Weak, Diabolic Intent, Phyrexian Altar, Ashnod's Altar, and Phyrexian Tower all play a big role in how the deck takes shape, creating several loops where creatures are sacrificed for benefits like infinite ETBs, death triggers, mana, and so on
I've seen White reanimation effects and while I haven't seen much outright Green ones, there's plenty of similar cards in the form of Regrowth
I guess I could talk about how R&D's view of mechanics has changed over time as we shifted from thinking of them as a disposable resource to a reusable one
However, like self-mill, this can have a psychological effect on newer players, which may be holding it back or be the reason why we so little of it at common
How Fun Is Reanimator
As for the favorite noncommander card, its this: Im on record as loving Sunbirds Invocation more than most of my family