Fantastic! I resonate so hard with "there’s few things more aggravating to me than suffering long reveal or transition UI animations for nothing".
Also love the meaningful icon behavior, and the idea of using dialogue instead of direct instruction.
One small bit of feedback - the "Naval Gun FIRE" image looks a little out of place to me. Almost everything in the UI is a physical item that exists on the boat, but this looks a little like a movie poster. Is it meant to be a piece of paper that might exist on the boat? Did you consider any other options?