Yeah, I think “what does this icon depict” is a little beside the point, also considering the mIRC screenshot. BUT, what is important is for icons to be easily

Yeah, I think “what does this icon depict” is a little beside the point, also considering the mIRC screenshot. BUT, what is important is for icons to be easily re-cognizable by shape AND color, and modern low-contrast monochrome icons fail that, being designed to look as uniform as possible. In the Outlook screenshot, the fact that the labels have the same color as the icons also doesn’t help. Furthermore, the label text size there emphasizes the larger-sized icons, although the text is more informative.