You can believe what you choose.
Your claim seems to be based on the assumption that that particular icon is the only one I could point to. It's not. There are others as well.
How about the exact same thing happening every time you're near cover or near a door?
Are you going to tell me an icon is necessary to pick a door out of the environment?
That's what I was referring to earlier when I said there were other, less defensible, examples I could use.
So no, it's not just that 1 example. Although if it was, I could still say it's "too many".
No, I don't believe what I choose. I believe what makes the most sense.
What do you mean necessary? Are you talking about whether the game would be completely unplayable without them? In that case, they're all unnecessary.
If we're talking about them being helpful and appropriate - then I can't think of a SINGLE icon that I had a problem with.
Some doors can't be opened - and sometimes you come across walls that look a bit like doors. Having the game tell you that you can open the door by showing the open-door key is EXACTLY the same (to me) as any game indicating that something is interactive. Like contextual icons in games like Skyrim or whatever - where your icon changes to reveal when you're close enough to interact with it.
It's VITAL when you're near cover - because nothing is more frustrating than trying to head into cover and not being quite close enough - or trying to run, but actually going into cover because you're too close.
I consider such indicators very helpful - and I DON'T think "old games" were better because they didn't have helpful indicators.
The fact that AA uses the actual control as part of the icon is simply smart use of icons.
LOTS of modern games use that - but since I've never had a problem with it, I can't remember any specific titles right now.
I bet you've played a lot of them too. How about the recent Tomb Raider? That would be just the kind of game to have such indicators. Was it such a big deal there?