Nope, it shows all notifications pending, not just the most recent. You can only open the most recent app with a drag up from the circle, but below the circle it shows all of the other pending notifications and you can drag own to power on the phone normally and then choose which app to start.
I liked the led myself, but it wasn't perfect. Without using a third party app, you couldn't distinguish two apps that used the same color; most apps you could not choose an led color (gmail and messaging shared a color, for example); it only showed the color for one notification if more were pending. My last phone was a 512 MB RAM device, so running a third party app to manage this wasn't worth the RAM.
If you want an LED light that's fine - get/use a phone with and LED light.
There are people, like chiplg mentioned, who used to constantly press the power button just to check the time or what not. People who don't want to do that can now nudge their phone or pick it up and unlock the phone or check the time without having to press a button.
LED notifications have benefits as well, and I miss customizing the colors. But again, the Moto X and 2013 Droids are geared towards a specific audience and if it's not you, then that's fine. Just find something you prefer.
If you guys want an led light, just disable active notifications, root your phone, install xposed framework, GravityBox, then use the nav bar backlight as a notification area. Works great.
Sent from my XT1080m using AC Forums mobile app.
I like that the active notifications come on whenever I move the phone or take it out of my pocket, but for ease of seeing what I had I think I still prefer the multi colored LED. I wish I could control which of the things I open the phone into from the active notifications. Like if I have an email in each of my accounts and a SMS. Instead it just opens to whatever came last.
Am I nuts or is there no LED light on the Droid Maxx? It seems like the phone goes on and off instead of a light, is that accurate?