Because if we did that, we'd have to revert them to how they play in the Mario series. Please watch a video of a Mario series game and how Yoshi is played. Now, please watch a video of a Yoshi series game and how Yoshi is played. Difference, no? Yoshi is portrayed as some... thing you can just jump off at any point in the mainstream Mario games and in fact you don't even need to ride him while in his own series, you actually play as him and he makes eggs that he can throw. Yoshi had been fleshed out so much in his own series, it's only proper that he has a different symbol to rep his own spin-off.
EDIT:
Wario... Same deal. Fleshed out much more than in a Mario game compared to a Wario game.
EDIT:
Wario... Same deal. Fleshed out much more than in a Mario game compared to a Wario game.