It's funny, I don't remember the 2013 change, but I'm sure I'll always remember the 2023 one! The new icons are terrible, for all the reasons U. Paar states. I've been using them for a year already, and still find them significantly harder to find in the toolbar because they are smaller and are all so similar. Plus they are just graphically inferior. I do use shortcuts, but only for the 20 or so tools and commands I use most regularly. The irony is that the native tool icons used to be more legible than most of those those created by plugin developers, but now it's the opposite. This really seems like an unnecessary own goal by the graphics team.
Mark