[jxdxbx]

It's one for one or two items to have icons. The vegetarian dishes on a restaurant can have the leaf icon for instance. But it would be stupid if every single dish did. The whole point is that icons pop out so putting them on EVERY item is just counterproductive.

[wwalexander]

What about toolbars? Those almost universally have both text and icons for each item. Why should menus be any different?

[manwe150]

Toolbars (pre office-ribbon design era) were understood to only have frequently used items which are the ones that also happen to have icons. Then the office-ribbon thing happened, and everyone complained about that because it meant everything had to have an icon and everyone had to memorize what every icon meant (I’m exaggerating slightly)

[stouset]

Toolbars already focus on the most-used actions one wants to perform. A menu contains everything.