[RFC]: refactor side menu to not inject SVG icons

[kgryte]

Description

This RFC proposes refactoring the side menu to not add unnecessary SVG icons into the DOM.

Currently, we use Material UI buttons which wrap SVG icons. Given the large number of packages (which we can expect to only increase), we're potentially adding thousands of unnecessary DOM nodes which harms performance.

Better would be to instead rely on CSS background images and load a single SVG which can be cached for a performance boost.

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Checklist

• [X] I have read and understood the Code of Conduct.
• [X] Searched for existing issues and pull requests.
• [X] The issue name begins with RFC:.

[kgryte]

This has been resolved. We now just use plain text for the icons.