Sure, this can sort of get the job done with somewhat bad results.

The icons in my case were complex, so a single click with magic wand wound not select all of the parts .

Expand by 4 blurs the icons at the edges. This is actually pretty bad, and would result in lost detail and a washed out look.

The operation in gimp is destructive, so tweaking in multiple steps is not really possible, and creates a bad workflow.

No, Gimp is terrible and not up to the task at all.