The very first version of emojis was already not just a compatibility encoding. If it were solely for compatibility every character could have been just named E

The very first version of emojis was already not just a compatibility encoding. If it were solely for compatibility every character could have been just named EMOJI COMPATIBILITY-HHHHH. Unicode (correctly) determined that the presence of initial emojis would trigger further needs and prepared basic encoding principles. No trademark characters, unify with existing characters whenever possible, country flags use generic regional indicators (there was already a specific request from national bodies at that time) and so on.