I also think the new design is a step backwards in usability. And yes I thought we all learned by now that symbolic icons are not as good as text labels. That's pretty much the point of human languages like English -- they are symbols which have a meaning, and you arrange them in different ways to convey different meanings. Given a choice between some arbitrary shape and the text "STOP", guess which one will more clearly and unambiguously convey "STOP"?