My language app is an owl.

My web browser is a fox curled up.

My media player is a traffic cone.

Out of the 40 app icons on my taskbar, maybe three of them remotely indicate the product's purpose.

app icons ≠ icons for functions within an app

But you knew that.

The first comment was about app icons. Nobody is suggesting putting confusing buttons in an app UI.

No; they're actually doing it!

But... your point is valid. I didn't interpret the original comment as being limited to app icons, but on another read you are right; it does emphasize them.