The pluggable "skins" / "themes" concept is great (in fact I believe
Squeak already has "themes" which might be a good place to put icon
sets too). Someone just has to do the work.

Have a look at Morphic-MAD.508 in the inbox which is a first attempt at a solution.
It's not tied into any existing theme or preference frameworks, but does allow you to select your preferred icon set, including no icons at all.

It's by no means the finished article, which will have to wait until the weekend, but it will give people something to play with. If anyone has any feedback on the content or implementation, or pointers on how to integrate this with a wider theming approach, please let me know.

In terms of this contribution, it's time for a change. The old icons
have been around for many years and have have not always been to
Squeak's benefit.

That's obviously my view too, but I understand that Nikolay and many others are fond of the existing icons, so I'm happy to give people a choice.

However, equally important to the icons themselves, to me, is that
constructive energy from our volunteer community is captured and
channeled toward the end product.

Absolutely!