What happened to the 'Sapphire' branding? Has it been quietly dropped now?
I believe this is the case.
New buses aren't being delivered in the Sapphire livery, but are often ordered to a very similar specification, meaning that buses like the Wright Streetdeck Electroliners that have been delivered to Leicester are Sapphire buses in all but name.
Many of the passenger features pioneered by the Sapphire brand, such as USB sockets, are either a largely standard feature on modern buses, or, in the case of next-stop announcements, are now mandatory.
Moreover, a substantial number of buses previously delivered in or repainted into the Sapphire version of the Journey Mark livery have been repainted into the regular version of the Journey Mark livery. On other older Sapphire buses, the features that were promoted as being distinct to the brand are sometimes defunct altogether!