I have always said they should have enabled the back apple logo to dimly glow for notifications if enabled. For Macs- it should have never been removed.
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Apple's Rainbow Logo May Return to Some New Products as Early as This Year
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I always liked the rainbow logo, but I agree with you. A blast from the past is good for occasional nostalgia (unless it's a web page with blinking text!), but the rainbow logo would be contrary to the sleek, cool, understated look that Apple products have these days.
I do not see how a colorful Apple logo can work with any of the current designs. If they were to embrace matte surfaces and darker tones it could work. Despite the proclamation that the rainbow has not changed in meaning it still is tied to a political and social movement. As evidenced by major pretty much all corporations changing their logos to be Pride versions in June. These factors plus the reluctance of Cook era Apple to move beyond copying Steve Jobs makes the change unlikely and potentially a bad move.
Tim Cook and co. really stuck for ideas how to refresh their aging macbook/iMac designs hey... 
"Lets trip on back to the past and stick a rainbow on it" - Tim 'Innovator' Cook
"Lets trip on back to the past and stick a rainbow on it" - Tim 'Innovator' Cook
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I've been an Apple user since the original multi-colored logo was still embedded in its products. So I see absolutely no political connotations to this. (I'm sure some will, but ignorance is ignorance. What can I say?)
What I do see is Apple trying to retread old iconography in the hopes of appearing more friendly. Sadly, that hour has long passed. Steve Jobs was still alive when Apple became an acknowledged behemoth in the industry - no longer the cute little upstart, but a major player which had the power to dictate to users and competition simply at the whims of a few higher-ups. This has only been exacerbated in the 8 years that Tim has been at the helm.
Apple no longer has the "freedom" argument going for it. That was ceded to Linux about 6-7 years ago, when Apple started making non-upgradable hardware and handicapping their software. They inch out Linux in the "security/privacy" argument, but only because of the happy accident they made 20 years ago in deciding to rewrite the Mac OS with UNIX. (The rest is just window-dressing.)
In other words, you can slap a new coat of paint on something, but it ain't gonna fix the structural problems beneath. Apple has fantastic tech but an increasingly poor philosophy informing it.
You may not see political connections to this, but are you equally certain that Apple would not be using this for political purposes? ... or that it wouldn't be co-opted for such?
If it looked like this, I would be fine with it. I would also like the Globar Menu Bar Apple logo in macOS to also restore the rainbow again, maybe similar to the above concept or like the life saver appearance of earlier versions.
I am actually really happy they got rid of that. My partner and I put tin foil and stickers over ours so that we don't beam each other with spotlights when we use our computers in dark rooms as we often do.
For $.99 I stuck a vinyl rainbow apple decal over my glowing MBP17 logo, and now it shines rainbow apples into the sky like the batsignal.
Alright that’s overstating it but it definitely fits, as my favorite logo on my favorite Mac.
Apple has been pushing hard to kill its ‘i’ branding in favor of its Apple branding instead.
Maybe no one said it because it's not true. I'm sure you have no docs on this. As an old Apple II head I liked the old logo and still do. Calm down.