How to remove white circles around Android icons?

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of the white circle that appears around all the freeform app icons? It seems like a terrible design aesthetic in this case where there is no other solid white in the GUI. I am running an Xperia XZ1 with android 9.0 and there is a setting in the launcher for 'add white circular background' that does nothing when turned off. Maybe I need to downgrade my version of android to 8.0 in order for this setting to work? by contrast, on a moto g 1st gen running lollipop, the homescreen appears beautiful with all the freeform icons intact. Why is Android taking this path of degrading design?