There should be a Hacker News "Challenge HN:" post, where you complain (point out) about some broken system and you challenge other people/developers/designers to do better.
Challenge HN: Improve Gmail Icons
Challenge HN: Improve Gmail Icons
Also, challenges like this might be a good way to surface existing projects which are trying to attack some broken system or problem, but don't (yet) have a lot of attention or traction.
Sometimes what we need is to not invent an entirely new solution, but to iterate on or fork an existing one.
Text buttons. Done.
I sorta feel like you could even remove "More" button here without losing too much. Reply box would be at the bottom of a message, just like it is currently. More buttons could be added for users who actually use this functionality (for instance, if you have categories defined, a button to move would appear).