I love pixel art, used Win 98 as my first OS and still find them ugly as hell. The colors are sad, the perspective is off, and on the first image[1], only 2 icons out of 6 make any sense to me (the trash and the folder). On the second image[2] I understand the wheelchair and the notepad but that's it. These icons aren't inherently easier to understand.

[1]: https://alexmeub.com/assets/win98-icons-1.png

[2]: https://alexmeub.com/assets/project-windows98-icons.png

They aren’t very beautiful pixel art icons. Maybe a bit when seen through nostalgia glasses. They are well made though.