I never ignore an e8. It's silly to ignore the tank that has the highest dps in the game when it's circling you and pumping 100 damage shells into you every 2 seconds.
Got another 30-40 games in this weekend, and I'm still not seeing the issue with the HE rounds knocking out stuff. Even did a few tests with my friend's lowe. I fired 5-6 rounds of HE into his turret, his sides, etc... (did a few tests, I don't carry that many HE rounds) nothing damaged, just viewfinder getting knocked out. Granted this is a small set, but the BL-10's HE rounds do a good 300-400 damage each shot, so the damage is not trivial. Maybe I'm just lucky, dunno.
I sold my IS-8 yesterday. Never thought I'd do it, but I hate the tank. It's a big fat slow medium that can't hit the top speed on flat ground. It can also get penned by a PIV frontally. Gun is good, turret is good, but the complete lack of depression and low siloutte doesn't let it hull down to make use of it. Not to mention you can't facehug with this tank; there are two huge tumors that can get penned by guns with 150-180~ pen. It's a slug and can't turn in place.
Why drive a tier 9 fat "medium" that can't dodge shots when you can have a T-54 that has better effective armor, acceleration, lower profile, and better gun depression? Hell, T-54 is agile enough to actually dodge shots, and neither of these tanks will survive getting rammed by an e-50 anyway. The only saving grace is it has more hp than a tier 9 medium, but the tracks taking longer to repair than a t-54 makes it fairly worthless when it gets tracked.
Also sold my M18 this weekend and got the t25/2. After 2 games in this thing (won both times) I want to cry. It's a worse M18 in every way shape and form, except for the hp.