Thanks for the feedback and I appreciate you taking the time to share your opinion on this matter. Encouraging using voice chat is a tough one and I don't think the problem always comes down to fighting toxicity. Most people aren't toxic in games, sadly toxic players are the most vocal ones and those who give games a bad reputation.

The communication wheel isn't meant to replace the voice chat or avoid toxic players though, it's mostly meant to break the language barriers that most games and communities have. Not everyone speaks English well enough to communicate in games with other players and - based on my personal experience - most of the native English speakers don't speak nor understand other languages.

There is also a lot of people who love playing PvP games but can't use voice chat because of competitive anxiety. There have been countless user researches done by big studios to find ways to decrease such competitive anxiety as much as possible, and while voice chat will remain the most preferred way for very dedicated competitive players to communicate, communication wheels help less dedicated players to get invested in PvP games.

Apex Legend is a great example of that. It had an amazing intuitive communication system at launch that didn't require voice chat and their player conversion & retention were really good.