Why isn't there a Unicode character to represent Unicode itself? I did a quick search but found no results [0].
According to the official FAQ [1]:
Unicode covers all the characters for all the writing systems of the world, modern and ancient.
I understand that the Unicode Consortium logo [2] is not exactly a written character, but doesn't it deserve a dedicated character, in the same way LaTeX has a dedicated command for its logo (\LaTeX)?
IMHO it would look nicer to write:
This software supports Unicode:
<UNi>
... instead of
This software supports Unicode: 🍦
[0] https://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/search.htm?q=unicode
[1] https://home.unicode.org/basic-info/faq/
[2] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Unicode_logo.svg
Unicode covers all the characters for all the writing systems of the world, modern and ancient.
...
I understand that the Unicode Consortium logo [2] is not exactly a written character
You've presented the answer in the question.
LaTeX is a typesetting system. Unicode is not. Similarly, the Zapfino font has a dedicated glyph for its own name. Unicode is not a font. No culture has widely included the Unicode logo in its writing system. If one does, then it would be appropriate to add that to Unicode.
Compare emoji, which are often rendered as colorful images (somewhat like logos). Why include them? Because they are a major writing system of the world that many cultures use to express themselves. Numerous pre-Unicode systems encoded them as well because they're part of our modern writing culture.
A good question to ask to distinguish: If Unicode didn't exist, and every culture created their own encoding systems (which was what was done before Unicode), which one do you believe would include an encoding for the Unicode logo? If none, then it's not a proper Unicode character.
To your suggestion that it would look nice to write "This software supports Unicode: <UNi>", Unicode has nothing to do with rendering. It only describes rules for encoding. You are absolutely free to create a glyph in your font that renders the character sequence <UNi> as a single ligature glyph, just like Zapfino renders its own name in a special ligature glyph without requiring any changes to Unicode.
That said, if you encoded the logo into a font, you would then need to explore intellectual property law to make sure you could distribute your font. You might need licensing, and those who used your font may have restrictions about how they can use this glyph due to trademark law in various countries. It is Unicode®, afterall.
