Does reduce motion help save battery life?

I haven’t read that it does, but would consider turning down or off graphic intensive operations might relieve the load on the cpu/graphic chip which could in turn reduce power consumption, but my guess is it would be a very small saving.

Enabling low power mode is I believe a little different, it actually turns some options off as well as reducing some others, like fetching mail, when you add all what it does (or stops doing) that can make a difference.

Use Low Power Mode to save battery life on your iPhone - Apple Support

ps. Some turn on “Reduced Motion” because on earlier devices it can improve the responsiveness/speed of the display during navigation.

I can’t find any documention regarding this right now, but at one point I know that I read it was suggested that turning on Reduce Motion did help with battery life. It was probably on one of the tech sites and not an Apple recommendation.

This is what Apple says that you can do to maximize battery life.

Batteries - Maximizing Performance - Apple

I have Reduce Motion enabled. It’s hardly a necessary thing to improve performance so why not turn it off.