Why so much emoji nonsense?

[James Kass via Unicode]

Christoph Päper wrote,

> Stuff like typography or emoji can improve the
> effectiveness and efficiency of textual communication
> a lot.

"Given that rich text equals plain text plus added information, the
extra information in rich text can be stripped away to reveal the
"pure" text underneath."

"Plain text must contain enough information to permit the text to be
rendered legibly and nothing more."

"The Unicode Standard encodes plain text."

(Above quotes from The Unicode Standard 5.0, pages 18 and 19)

It's true that added features can make for a better presentation.
Removing the special features shouldn't alter the message.

The Unicode Standard draws the line between minimal legibility and
special features.  Emoji are in The Standard and have, therefore, been
determined to be required for minimal legibility.  If the emoji
repertoire expands and Unicode does not include the new emoji, then
Unicode cannot be depended upon to exchange legible textual data.  The
addition of more emoji to Unicode is inevitable.