The Pixel 8 - how is it 6 months later

Okay, so here I am, been using the Pixel 8 for over 6 months now.  I'm a Pixel fan.  Really.

So, how has it held up?

Honestly, I really wish I had gotten the 8 Pro.

Here's my thoughts after 6'ish months now:

• Size:  Yeah, at first I had liked that the device was that perfectly palm sized.  Great for your hand and great for the pocket.  But, I have found that actually using it after a few months that I miss something bigger for the eyes, easier to type with.  A few days with the OnePlus 12 and I miss a larger phone.
• Display:  The display is really fluid and I don't know that I notice that it's not a full QuadHD display.  It looks great and the refresh rate is fine
• Battery:  Yeah, it really isn't great for battery.  It sure can last a full day without charging, but that's going to be it.  For those of you who've followed me, know I have that battery fear.  If it gets 70% that's too low and I have to charge it.  And it depends on what you do, but as a daily driver, I use it for everything.  So usually by end of work day (when I've suppressed any urge to charge) I'll be about 45-50%.  I could make the end of the day, maybe.  If I was more conservative in use, then I'm sure I could get that 48 hours.
• Performance:  This is the big 'disappointment' from this phone.  Only 8GB of RAM has really limited my experience.  How it powers through apps, is fine.  Haven't noticed it being a slow or chug through anything compared to other phones, it's on par.   What happens is that I notice that whenever I really try multitasking that it has some issues.  And when I mean issues, it's reloading a game, or starting over.  A big pain is if I'm in a game and accidentally click an ad, it brings me to something else and then to go back to the game, I've lost my place as it reloads.  It's a pain.  Or I'll listen to some music, pause when I go into the store, answer a call, text, read my to-do, and get back in the car and it is back to the start of the song.  Really annoying if I was listening to a long Audiobook... come back to the beginning of chapter 1.  Same with if I'm doing something on a website, if I have to go back to something else, often times I'll return and it'll have me logged out.  I thought it was the sites' security (but I haven't noticed that issue back on my old 7Pro or my OP 12).
• Storage:  128GB to start and I'm at 1/2 full already.  So it's starting to feel a little cramped.
• Camera:  I'm always still impressed by Pixel's magic ability to turn out some great photos.  Not having a good zoom, is really felt as you start to feel like so much is so far away when you take photos.
• AI:  Now, this was supposed to be transformative.  But It's been slow to make any edits in the Photos app.  The features for incorporating it into other bits of our lives with the phone haven't really been noticed.  I had a whole issue with it in Messages and then not, and back and forth with support... and they said it should be there, but it just isn't.  Maybe we'll get more later.

So, overall, much of the issues I've had with it, none of them are 'chuck this out the window' kind of pains, but it's had made me feel they could have done better:  going with the 8 Pro would have been a better choice.  More RAM, zoom lens, bigger screen, and the Gemini Nano built in.