This is not really extrapolable enough to claim a trend. I am using a piece of software from the 90s that has an icon for "Load transistor switching activity hi

This is not really extrapolable enough to claim a trend. I am using a piece of software from the 90s that has an icon for "Load transistor switching activity history" which is frankly even more abstract. Yet most if not all desktop/office software from the 20s sill uses icons that are based on physical objects. They even use a diskette as save. i.e. Specialized software is going to be specialized. It's not new.