I've been following Naughty Dog's career twitter page
https://twitter.com/NaughtyDogJobs and they have tweeted about having a few special little party/events for their animation team. Going back over 2 year on twitter they have not done this for any other department even once (eg they have never tweeted about something specifically for their audio team). Of course Naughty Dog do things for the entire studio as a whole like occasional donut friday, the reoccurring bagel day, healthy food day, pride day, world cup day, celebrating the launch of Uncharted Lost Legacy etc
They most recently threw a special pre-4th of July party solely for the animation team
To single out the animation team like this likely means has been doing great work that stands out.
Could argue that gives additional weight to the possibility that the incredible animation in the e3 2018 trailer is really possible with real gameplay.
They aren't tweeting about having little parties for any other department