What I mean by tidy is talking about lines, shapes, and colors, it can help logically thinking.
Actually, I use icons and emojis just depends on the final output of what I'm doing. If I want to make something creative, I can't live without emojis and icons. Just like you said:
I have the same feeling as you when I'm working on Raindrop. Especially Raindrop has provided a great icons library, currently fitting about 400 of my topics without a duplicate, it's really cool!
I think I am just more concerned about why and when to use a tool, but I'm not mean to disagree any about the thing you've created. I am just to tell what's in my mind when I read the post.