Why can't I remove these items from Mail toolbar?

[TumbleDryer]

Call me stupid but I have no idea what the function of the 'filter' button is in Apple Mail in Tahoe. It does nothing at all except say 'no message selected'. That's it. No filter options or anything. Just click it and you get that simple message even when you select a message first. For me it's pointless and I want to remove it from the toolbar along with the ellipsis button which is for showing categories, contact photos and priority messages. None of which I need/want or use. I just want an inbox with my messages in it. I don't want Apple telling me how I should view/use my messages and force what it thinks I may or may not categorise my mail as. Everyone I know has asked me how to turn off categories. Anyhoo... because of my preferences I have two icons sat in my toolbar that I don't want as I don't use them but for some reason out of all the customisation option I cannot remove these two items. Every other item, even send mail I can remove but for some reason these two pointless button I cannot. Is it bugged? Why does the filter button do nothing? And why can't I remove them but I can remove everything else from the toolbar?

 

[bhagemann]

'filter' for me shows unread only in whatever box I'm browsing. it toggles with each click 'unread only'. 'all mail'. I use this all the time to get thru unread messages in my inbox.

 

[01cowherd]

Filter defaults to showing unread mail, as mentioned above. You can see the filter options in the menu bar View > Filter or by (left) clicking and holding the filter icon. It's more discoverable on iOS, surprisingly.

 

[TumbleDryer]

So they put a filter button at the top of the window but you then need to open a separate menu item to control it?! Bonkers.

Im a zero inbox type so I never have much unread email so the filter is definitely not needed by me. Why though can't I remove it from the toolbar but I can everything else?

 

[BrianBaughn]

I've never used it. I don't look at it. I forgot it was there.

 

[Significant1]

Call me stupid but I have no idea what the function of the 'filter' button is in Apple Mail in Tahoe. It does nothing at all except say 'no message selected'. That's it. No filter options or anything. Just click it and you get that simple message even when you select a message first. For me it's pointless and I want to remove it from the toolbar along with the ellipsis button which is for showing categories, contact photos and priority messages. None of which I need/want or use. I just want an inbox with my messages in it. I don't want Apple telling me how I should view/use my messages and force what it thinks I may or may not categorise my mail as. Everyone I know has asked me how to turn off categories. Anyhoo... because of my preferences I have two icons sat in my toolbar that I don't want as I don't use them but for some reason out of all the customisation option I cannot remove these two items. Every other item, even send mail I can remove but for some reason these two pointless button I cannot. Is it bugged? Why does the filter button do nothing? And why can't I remove them but I can remove everything else from the toolbar?

Long click on it, will show filter options