You know... I'm a "Rand" fan, but I never cared for the NeXT logo either. It's just so cheap-looking (at least to me) and jarring compared to his other work. But then again it never had a presence in my day-to-life either, unlike IBM.
I guess all these things add up to 'cool logo by a millionaire for a billionaire' in some peoples minds, but to me it just seems like cat barf. Literally, as in .. something that was just spit up, with chunks of undigested stuff in it.