With all due respect, but what are you writing here is a complete nonsense.
That is a 'common sense' issue, on a level of a pre-school child.
Telling me "Of course not! I don't have the time to do that." feels like a personal insult.
It doesn't take you more than 5 minutes, to look at the images, to look at the settings (automatically/manually), and to look how the icons (not) behave at the given settings. Saying something like "The battery tray icon does not scale well" is a bit of a problem, when all of the icons are somehow involved, according to different settings.
It doesn't take you more than 15 minutes, to read the Dedoimedos writing, concerning Xfce ...
It doesn't take you more than 30 ~ 45 minutes, to download the ISO and try the latest Xfce yourself ...
Time ... Nobody has time. Nobody ever had time. People TAKE themselves time, for what is important to them.
But, it takes me a couple of hours to prepare another set of screenshots -- to help YOU! I don't give a **** for broken Xfce. My Windows has no issues, my Mac has no issues, and my Linux -- my Ubuntu and my Fedora Gnome have no issues ...
Now, you are trying to build a new Salix version, that will be based on new components ...
The first thing you MUST do, is to TAKE yourself time, and to inform yourself about those components.
Other ways, you will soon have even much less time, as you will first build something, and then have to resolve the issues with it ... because you 'didn't have time', when it was time.
I am basically just trying to save you your own time.
However, back to the topic ...
The previous screenshots didn't load, because the image hoster had some technical problems. Nothing we can do about, except to postpone examining the screenshots to another time, and to postpone writing comments, if we couldn't see those images, or not to reply at all, if someone didn't even have time to look at them.
The taskbar consists of application area and the system area. Application area icons are supposed to be bigger (32 ~ 44 Px), and the system area icons are supposed to be smaller (16 ~ 28 Px). Some 30 ~ 60 % size difference, depending on the total taskbar height / width and the users age and eyesight quality.
If the taskbar is horizontal, it'll be usually about 36 ~ 48 Px tall, and if it's vertical, it'll be around 48 ~ 64 Px wide.
If there is a clock on the vertical taskbar (bad idea), it still has to be WELL legible!
This is how the typical Xfce horizontal toolbar looks like:
https://ibb.co/nLHKkN5
If the taskbar elements are properly scaling, enlarging it would give something like this:
https://ibb.co/wMNhSPQ
A properly configured vertical toolbar should look similar to this:
https://ibb.co/LkJpHyv
Ubuntu divides it on two toolbars; left for the applications, and top for the system area.
https://ibb.co/gDBTRML
Such configuration works basically very well in Xfce too.
https://ibb.co/FbGr69q
Now, the issue with the latest Xfce is, that it just doesn't scale properly.
Yes, one could still achieve any of those good examples, BUT ... this is something what I can do, or you, or another freckling nerd, but that is not doable for the 99 % of computer USERS (== NOT freckling, nerdy freaks, like we are).
I put the text directly to images, so no need for any further explanations ...
https://ibb.co/z8ppLRX
https://ibb.co/60vs4SG
https://ibb.co/yRVj8Ys
https://ibb.co/dMfMpr1
https://ibb.co/cQVGPdM
https://ibb.co/4PtQL4k
https://ibb.co/Rbd4Kb3
https://ibb.co/WGYLngX
Xfce (and Mate) is utterly broken.