Then came the fad of the bright blue, "plugged in but turned off" indicator on consumer electronics that had to be taped over if you wanted to sleep in the same room as the device.

The PS2 got it right-- its power button was a red/green bicolor LED (red on standby; green when powered on).

The blue LED was on the eject button, and was only lit while the console was powered on (and a disc was loaded, IIRC).

This fad has unfortunately not fully died yet!

Agreed. One of my monitors can attest to that. Black duct tape, to match the monitor design :-))

My Sony amp from '99 had one which they actually enhanced with some acrylic to make it appear even larger. Yes I bought it specifically because it had that blue LED.

Yes! One of my first hobby electronics projects as a kid was adding a blue LED to an RC car just for the cool factor.