I've heard it expressed this way: "A picture is worth a thousand words, but there are times when a single word will do."

You don't have to localize icons which is a feature.

People think, naively, that you don't need to localize icons. And yet a lot of the time icons should be localized.

Or rather:

You can design an icon that doesn't need to be localized. But unless you design for it, it very well may need to be localized.

Things like thumbs-up/down, any sort of animal icon... Even trash cans.

Do you have any examples of animal icons that should have been localized? I'm intrigued.

🐉. (Dragons)

http://utkin1.ru/sites/default/files/dragons.jpg

For a quick example:

An owl connotates wisdom in many places - but in some parts of Asia it connotates stupidity instead.

Or mail boxes. I've never seen one with a flag apart from movies.

A "feature"?

I'd consider doing things just to make development a little easier at the expense of many users' ability to operate the UI is most certainly a bug and not a feature.