Maddinson has been left out of Australia's side for the decider against South Africa in Cape Town, with Cameron Green overcoming an abdominal strain and fit to play.
Josh Inglis' recovery from a fractured thumb has also led to Sam Harper being released from the squad, with Maddinson and him flying back to Australia.
Officials had considered keeping the pair around the group, but believe there is greater value in having them return for the third round of the Shield this weekend.
Maddinson's recall will go down as one of the most surprising in memory, after he hadn't played a Test in almost 10 years and had been out of first-class cricket last summer.
But selectors felt the 34-year-old was a good player of spin, and gave them the freedom to allow Matt Renshaw to move down to No.5 for the first two Tests.
They have also maintained the left-hander had been firmly in the selection conversation during a purple patch between 2018 and 2024, before battling cancer.
"Performance wise, would you like more runs? Yes, so that's OK," chief selector George Bailey said.
"Did it allow us to set the rest of the team up the way we wanted to, whilst we were working with the group we had? Yes.
"We always talk about what do we see when we see players at our best. I think we saw a glimpse of that in the second innings in Durban.
"With him going home, we wanted to be clear to him he wasn't a stop-gap.
"The same reasons and process we worked through to get him here will be the same questions we ask across the whole summer"
Maddinson's call up came following Green and Inglis' injuries. Kurtis Patterson would likely have been another option if fit.
Nathan McSweeney and Ollie Peake were among those overlooked.
But coach Andrew McDonald suggested that Renshaw's match-winning scores of 190 and 81 in Durban had to be factored into any conversation about the decision.
"Some people look at (selections) in isolation. We look at them in the sum of two parts, sometimes three parts," McDonald said.
"So one position then has an effect on another, has an effect on another. So that's about trying to stack the team to get the outcome as a collective.
"I think people will zero in on the one part rather than the sum of the other parts that allowed us to structure up the way that we wanted to in that moment.
"It doesn't make a right or wrong but that's the way we look at the problem."
The other positive for selectors has been better run-scoring by top-order players in the Shield, with pitches slightly flatter and the likes of Sam Konstas impressing.
