So the question is whether we want to have a way to insert a macro in the syntax or not.
Personally and from a user POV I think it makes sense, in the same way as we can insert an image using the syntax. I don’t see why we wouldn’t have a way to insert an icon.
If I had to choose I would deprecated the macro instead as this is look unnecessary (again from a user POV). I read the forum post quickly but couldn’t see why a macro was introduced. It says it was to fix a rendering bug but it doesn’t why it was not possible to fix in the rendering itself.
Note that it’s hard or impossible to deprecate a syntax feature. The only thing you can do is create a new syntax (like xwiki/2.2) and make it the default and convert docs to it. You can ofc document that it’s not recommended to use some syntax for XYZ reasons.
Also, it’s possible that this proposal would actually require a VOTE since it’s something quite important to remove a syntax feature.
To sum up, I don’t like that, for some technical reasons, we remove a syntax feature that makes sense to exist. Is there no other way?
Thanks