If you've ever read the story 'Old Wounds' in the Star Wars Visionaries book, it shows a Maul that survived TPM, with new cyborg legs fighting an old Obi-Wan...
Someone made a flash cartoon of it...it's non-canon, but pretty damn cool:
https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/321197
Much as I love Maul, I'm glad they never brought him back in that capacity, it would have come off as bogus in my mind, or it would have been done like Grevious and Vader, at which point Maul still wouldn't look or likely fight like he did in TPM and that's what I liked. Better he be dead than used poorly.
As for the idea of Lucas not wanting Maul to overshadow Vader and in turn Anakin's story, I can sort of understand that, but at the same time I think most watch the OT and find the story more about Luke than Anakin/Vader's story, so even if Maul was really popular, I don't think it would've hurt the story of the PT in any way.