> (I don't know what to do if another change interrupts the first but it's a rare case and can probably be handled imperfectly.)
This kind of lerp trick, while imperfect, is useful in exactly these sort of situations. It allows you to smooth movement even if the target point is changing at at arbitrary intervals (note too that it works okay generalised to multiple dimensions). And the statelessness is very useful too - I don't think the feel is great and it's not very controllable, but being able to just add some damping to the movement without having to track animation states or anything like that is super useful.
This kind of lerp trick, while imperfect, is useful in exactly these sort of situations. It allows you to smooth movement even if the target point is changing at at arbitrary intervals (note too that it works okay generalised to multiple dimensions). And the statelessness is very useful too - I don't think the feel is great and it's not very controllable, but being able to just add some damping to the movement without having to track animation states or anything like that is super useful.