Ironically just this week, I put my four year old in front of an apple 2 emulator running apple logo, and he was far more engaged and interested than any of the modern “kids learn to code” toys of today.
Even the “updated” logos I found sucked because they throw you into a notebook not a repl. For young kids, a repl is way less overwhelming and confusing, because you’re “talking to the turtle.” Even the error messages are better: “I don’t know how to X.” The kid loved seeing the turtle talk back. These notebook oriented ones kind of lost the original thesis of logo form Paepert.
If you might be more interested in a modernized version of Apple Logo, you should check out https://turtlespaces.org -- I too grew up with Apple Logo and thought it would be great to create a 3D version of it. It has a REPL just like the original, and the 'I don't know how to...' error messages too!
I guess the main difference between MakeCode and most other kids learning environments is that it starts with a real language (TypeScript) and then exposes a subset of it through graphical blockly interface (while allowing usage of both). Having a real language makes it easier for more advanced users to create libraries, which can be exposed (as blocks which map 1:1 to functions) to less advanced ones. It also doesn't place an artificial ceiling on user's abilities.
The library approach in micro:bit is mostly used for interfacing external hardware, but in https://arcade.makecode.com/ it allows for the entire 8-bit game engine to be implemented in-system.
Southern California, I think they gave 2 to every elementary school in California iirc. -- EDIT: so, I guess it was not till the 80s they gave them out to all the schools. I thought we got them in the second grade, but maybe it was 4th grade. http://hackeducation.com/2015/02/25/kids-cant-wait-apple
They are :) It's not as huge as Scratch is but our Logo interpreter gets a reasonable amount of traffic, enough to make it worthwhile to develop, anyway
