Effects cannot be given to items

Effects (e.g. glowing) cannot be given to items.

What happens:
Trying to execute an effect-command for items results in an error. (That entity cannot be found).

What I expected to happen:
At least some effects (e.g. glowing or levitation) should be givable to items.
Although effects don't make sense for items, e.g. glowing or levitation could be useful.

Steps to reproduce the issue:
Type an effect-command for an item in the chat, for example:
/effect @e[type=Item] minecraft:glowing