I didn't get chance to read and understand the implications of dropping
lo-color icons, but are you sure this is a good idea ? 

A lot of Linux systems are old systems with older graphics cards and
therefore I think both the 40 colour set and the hi-colour set should be
included, to ensure owners of both low performance and hi-performance
PCs are able to run KDE 'straight from the release'. It is often stated
that Linux can run on low end machines and I think these users should be
supported

Example:
I have 4 PCs, 3 running Windows and a Linux fileserver. All the Windows
machines have Voodoo 2/3 cards installed, but my Linux box uses an
original Matrox Millenium I swapped out of one of the other machines.
Before 1999, it used an ISA video card that could just about support
hi-color [but very sloooow...]


Regards
Mark Roberts