Past icons weren’t just more expressive. They were also more usable. Having distinct shapes provided a useful way to tell icons apart. Tahoe eliminates that cue by forcing everything into the same squircle, leaving color as the primary way to tell icons apart at a glance.
Forcing Mac app icons into a “squircle” shape is one of the weird, bad changes introduced in Tahoe, and it continues into the first developer beta of macOS 27 Golden Gate. Let’s hope the powers-that-be can be convinced to free the icons.
Free The Icons
Apple should end their prohibition on shapes in MacOS app icons