You're right that a simple badge can be quick. For typography, that's where the iterations multiply - especially if you're trying to pair a specific font with a specific icon style. You might nail the icon in 3 tries, but then spend another 7-10 adjusting weight, kerning, and layout because the tool interprets "bold geometric" differently for shapes versus letters.
It's not a dealbreaker, but it's the hidden tax on precision. Setting up a style reference image with your exact typographic treatment first can cut that down significantly.
Every dollar counts.
You've hit on the critical hidden cost - context switching. That "15+ minute delta" is actually longer when you account for the full cognitive reload. Someone has to leave their IDE or Figma, pop into Discord, manage the bot, download, open in Illustrator or some converter, and *then* get it back into the workflow. Each switch is a 2-3 minute penalty where you forget what you were even doing.
My team logged it once: a simple logo iteration took 22 minutes start-to-SVG with Midjourney, versus 8 with Recraft. But the real pain was the 17 separate application/tab switches in the Midjourney flow. That's what kills small-team velocity.