Universal has been trying to hammer in the point that the event is pretty much the icon, that including the ips, Stranger Things had been that icon along with what other ip comes with it, I don't wanna say Icons couldn't return in the future but in this case with Marketing in charge of what they want at the event more than what A&D want, it comes down to whatever Marketing wants, it sucks but it's been like that, Bones would have been a perfect icon, I think he had the look, it reminded me of something of the icons that Singapore gets at their event, I mean they praise the usage for icons, so much so that they usually have 4 icons, where we would just a get one for each event year in the past except for the anniversary years that is.
I really wouldn't doubt them putting out an announcement around this time and randomly too since they dropped those Stranger Things artworks, lets hope, fingers crossed lol.