I've seen that for small icons. The "off" state is the icon for the thing, and the "on" state is something like two vertical bars, regardless of what was turned on.

He also wrote:

"Lol imagine if files and folders got heavier the bigger they get"

Someone did that in the early Mac days, as the "Sonic Finder". Everything the use did made a sound. Moving files produced a "thump" sound, with a deeper "thump" for larger objects.

Few people left that feature turned on.