There's actually a term for what you're talking about here: "False simplicity" (Google it)

It's the idea that you can oversimplify something to the point it's no longer useful to do the job. Excessive iconography is often guilty of this, particularly on touch interfaces and smaller displays.

It LOOKS simpler, and if you know what the icons are because you created them or chose them from something like Font-Awesome, it will seem simpler... and then actual users get their hands on it and can't figure a damned thing out.

It's a painfully common failing amongst artists under the DELUSION that they're designers. They talk about UX but couldn't define it, and are devoid of the most basic knowledge of accessibility. If you can't even be bothered to provide text fallbacks, styling off behaviors, and legible colour contrasts it doesn't matter how blasted pretty it is.

As I say in an article I'm in the middle of writing right now, design isn't art unto and of itself. It's engineering that incorporates art; and we've got WAY too many PSD jockeys out there calling themselves "designers" when they are absolutely nothing of the sort!