Looking at all the features that older phones uses to have compared to newer ones, I never hear anyone talk about the removal of the notification LED. I personally really liked that feature, being able to see if I got an email, a text or missed a call without turning on my phone was awesome. My Samsung note 8 had this feature, but to my knowledge, newer phones (in the major companies anyway) have abandoned this feature. Did everyone else unanimously agree they don’t care for this feature?
I actually really don’t like this feature, but I just went and checked on my S21, as well as my work S20, and both of them have a Flash notification option, which flashes the camera LED when a notification goes off. Is that what you’re talking about?
I think OP means a designated RGB-LED on the display side which flashes in user specified color when you have unread messages. My Sony Xperia active used to have one and I am missing that feature too.