Yes, symbolic feng shui.
I agree with you karen, it does work to a certain extend, however some people seems
to be obsess in collecting all sort of items as instant remedies for all their feng shui problems.....every year, a lot of new items can be found in the market...which supposedly will bring good luck for that particular year.
Those who are obsessed with such collection may feel more comfortable with these items around them thus it can help them psychologically and with a more positive mindset or heart (their own after surrounding themselves with such items), their confident level goes up so more or less, this might help in their overall luck ba?
I think we need to hear more feedback from people who are using this method to give us a better picture.... personally i do love the image of dragons and phoenix so having/wearing a jade or crystal in such design makes me feels very positive. But personally, i dun think symbolic item can takes in the place of the producing or countering of elements.

Maybe psychologically it works as Feng Shui is about Qi and Yin/Yang. The outside form affects the inside more, so any placement should be probably done outside and not inside.
Apartments does not favour placement of objects outside the house and most people in the past also have not place most Fengshui cure outside of their houses. To be more practical, unless we are staying in a landed property which is enclosed with wall/fencing and gate, and having camera installed, most of us won't wanna put our placement outside the house as there is the chance of breaking in. Fengshui should be fun and the aim of the overall results should be something that benefit our life instead of installing fear. Flexibility should be a major concern when auditing the fengshui as "chi" moves but we won't be shifting our house whenever the "chi" moves.
Mostly those Fengshui cure outside the house are in the form of features instead of objects. The use of landforms in fengshui should be considered as an important factor before we decide which house to take and after confirming the "chi" (landforms) and certain basic audit done outside the house, we would most probably emphasis more on the placement of fengshui cure inside the house as it give us more flexibility in terms of control. Also come think of it, how often would the landforms outside the house changes? Not very often right?
Even if we are staying in a landed property, if we were to emphasis our placement outside, then won't our house looks like a christmas tree?

new decoration every year?