Your eyes are FAR FAR better than anything AH can render on a screen of pre-set squares. There's no way that the graphics in this game even come CLOSE to what the eye can see plainly and easily.
Icons help to resolve this (because the technology at work in our computers cannot be changed, or "fixed").
Icons serve a purpose. In-game, they say "Hey, you'd normally see this but this game can't see crap, so we're pointing otu what you could normally see anyways, look here!".