So far:
I think the text on items is really great. I'd played for probably hours before the Alpha dropped, and there were tons of seeds I have literally no idea what they did without just throwing them down, and Tumbleseed is not a game that incentivises risky behaviour, so in the end I just ignored most of the seeds I didn't understand unless I had a really safe spot to try them out. Being able to just read what they do means I'm much more likely to use new seeds.
Also, it makes the quest system possible, and the quest system is great.
Definitely miss some of the playful emojis. Do all the characters need to talk in words? It'd be nice if most of the flavour non-mechanical stuff was still emojis. I miss them.