They were barely used in the pavilions originally too. Wonders didn’t use its icon at all. Horizons, SSE, etc. used their icons twice, maybe three times? The new Test Track I believe ties World of Motion for the amount of in-pavilion icon appearances.
2.0 also used the WOM logo in several places as much if not more than the current version.
Oh much more. The WoM logo was everywhere in 2.0. Tons of signage in and around the building, the trash cans, signs on the ride, two giant ones on the hill climb, list goes on. I think 2.0 is likely the EPCOT attraction that featured a pavilion icon the most in the whole history of the park, funny considering it opened long after they were retired and long before they were brought back.
Personally I find the move to bring them back as a cynical marketing ploy to keep EPCOT purists happy. It doesn't do anything of substance to bring the park back to it's original ideals Nemo still controls the Seas, SSE still has no ending and a condescending script, Universe Of Energy is still gone with a Marvel superhero attraction in it's place Mission Space still stands on the ground once occupied by Horizons, Imagination is still a sad shadow of it's former self. World Showcase has had most of it's attractions re-themed to fictional characters rather than actual countries and to top it off the day no longer concludes with a story "As old as time itself, but still being written" I will admit that I like Test Track 3.0 but it is a single living organism on a thematically dead park and no amount of self-referential humor in the queue for GOTG is going to change that.
CommuniCore was the only pavilion that used its icon on the marquee other than Horizons in its final five years. Half the pavilions had one or two secondary marquees that featured their icon. That still leaves nearly half that didn't. Even in the 80s they were predominantly used for wayfinding, just as they are now.
I am not sure but I remember reading that there used to be signs with the SSE logo on the Mirrored column at the bottom of Spaceship Earth, They were removed for the Legacy kiosk in 99 but there are still marks from where they were. They may be gone now for all I know but i remember reading about it.
You can actually still see the covered up mounting points where the signs used to be on either side of the mirrored column.
If the mounts are still there, it would be a neat addition to have the updated SSE logo on the elevator column.
Why not just use the originals? It looks like the next version will be bringing the original back anyway.
www.wdwmagic.com
Everyone in our car gasped! Now if only they could replace M:S and add a new attraction in the WoL pavilion, this side of the park would be so much fun! Ahh, one can dream!