I see. What threw me off was misunderstanding your first sentence:
"The icon keywords are an old and outdated system, it'd be easier for users if a better management system was put in place, especially for high numbers of icons."

I took that to mean you were looking to completely replace the keyword system with something else; a different way of managing icons. I now understand that you are looking to replace the keyword management system with something a little less like a command line and more like drag-n-drop?