So a few years passed and I sort of felt like the effort was...

...not really worth the payout of trying to animate data over time in ArcGIS.

That said, with ArcGIS you can very easily create snapshots in time...

if you have very well-defined time data with clear cut intervals, such as months, years, days...

...and that your time range is not very high if you have smaller breaks in time.

In short, ArcGIS, and I think other GIS software, is limited.

So you have to be creative within its limitations.

Here's an example, the NETS Modified Healthy Food Outlets by Year, created using ArcGIS.