What isn't so helpful though is the classic Google Sheets example where it has three different options (Delete Row, Delete Column, etc.) but all with an identical "trashcan" icon.

I immediately see that block as something to do with deleting stuff. If I don't need deleting is ski if i need i look closer

Can you associate the symbols shown in the post with the text blurred out to their individual meaning?

Genuinely curious if the item types in as shown in the article are that helpful though. They seem small, fiddly, hard to distinguish between, and not especially intuitive.

did not undergo a stroke, but I find myself often navigating menu by memorizing the location in the menu, I also use the icons for memorizing and then I can speed up by not reading.

The first time I noticed that is the time I needed to operate a Finnish Windows machine and I could get it working pretty good by sheer memory

Then I'd argue that not having icons on every item in the menu, and having groups/separators helps more than just having nearly indistinguishable icons everywhere

maybe, but over use of groups can also be confusing

I find icons helpful to visually anchor things in the menu. It can be noisy when there are 5 identical "paste as" icons but generally I see it as a positive