[cheald]

I don't even think that unnecessary complexity is the issue. If the icons were consistently complex, it'd be fine!

You have a wildly varying base palette, a wild variety of light sources (that's what a gradient indicates, remember!), and a wild variety in complexity (contrast "phone" with "settings").

The net result is an icon package that feels haphazardly thrown-together by multiple teams of wildly variant skill levels who didn't communicate at all.

Even if all the icons looked like Passbook or Safari, it'd be better than the current setup, because it would at least be consistent.