In understand the frustration of something disappearing that you used daily, but let me crush the hope: this will not come back. And for a very valid reason already shared before:
We won’t add back functionality that makes Google’s Android crash our app.
For anyone still experiencing issues with the media notification not working on their device: please create a separate topic. Since this topic is ‘solved’ (original request has a definitive reply) comments about something else (the media notification) would not get the appropriate attention.
For the widget, please see/click the ‘Me too’ button on Widget is broken after a few minutes of stopping