That seems only partly true. We did already have punctuation marks (like !?) that are a form of picture writing to modulate the underlying alphabetic meaning.
The smiley was invented because a pure alphabetic script does not do a good job expressing emotions, especially in short isolated sentences.
Emojis are overused in some current contexts (smartphone/messaging addiction) but some sort of standardization along with "emoji" literacy is, in principle, an evolution of the alphabet towards more sophistication and nuance.
Emojis are not quite the same thing as picture writing (icons).
I used emojis for a while, then got kinda sick of them.
> a pure alphabetic script does not do a good job expressing emotions
Instead of a smiley emoji, I'll write "haha". Instead of a barf emoji, I write "barf". English has a million words in it. I'm sure you can find a variety of words that express emotions just fine.
?! being a form of picture writing? I don't see it.
What makes "?!" different from emoji in your eyes, exactly? It literally encodes emotional delivery of the sentence to which it is applied.