Software versions come out all the time and software changes. The layout changes are what customers want as they told us what they wanted. The new index look can be controlled via a switch in the admin panel to use the forum look how it looks now versus the gallery look. The showphoto page is a little different but customers want social integration etc.
Pro supports the ckeditor on full comment interface just not quick reply. There are no open bugs in either 7.1 or 8.0 so not sure what your referring to.
There are numerous examples of 8.0 here in those threads and going forward as with any release of our software once the final is released it replaces any previous version.
There are alot of reasons to upgrade to Pro 8. If you use vbulletin 4 then all the new plugins and one integrated profile link to the
vb profile among other things is enough to make most any
vb customer upgrade to the new version IMO. I know I spent alot of time making the best of the vb4 integration even changing how we do the style mapping to be more integrated and work with custom styles.