[amelius]

What if you don't know the icons yet?

And wouldn't colors be just as helpful?

Anyway, they should design for the majority. Or use some configurable approach, like with CSS, to make everybody happy. Opinionated is so last year.

[brulard]

What if I didn't know the words yet? Usage of totally unintuitive icons is obviously wrong. Colors can be helpful too. Colored text - not as concise as recognizable icons.

Another non-negligible advantage of icon is, that it is language agnostic. Not everyone is fluent in language they have to use.