tl;dr: MacOS 26 (Tahoe) forced all third-party app icons into a uniform "Liquid Glass" squircle shape, imprisoning non-conforming icons in an ugly gray background and reducing usability by making icons harder to distinguish at a glance. While MacOS 27 (Golden Gate) betas show Apple walking back some Liquid Glass excesses on their own icons, the author urges Apple to go further and restore the ability for app icons to have distinct, varied shapes.