Tim would disagree that A8 has none of the drawbacks of A5, A2 and ceramic. The thing is, BKPs with those standard magnets don't have the drawbacks that many other makers' pickups do. BKPs ceramic pups don't sound harsh and/or sterile, alnico 5 BKPs still sound tight and not scooped etc. There's a reason Tim chooses A5 and ceramic over A8 in the standard models. He has once said that A8 compresses the tone even more than ceramic and that sacrifices dynamics and organicness.
i think you didn't get what those guys said
magnets have a huge influence in the sound of a pickup
of course an alnico 5 pickup can sound middy and a ceramic can sound not harsh, but using specific winding patterns for that
those characteristics are used to describe how a "generic" pickup (with usual original paf style winding) is influenced by each type of magnet
if those characteristics didn't count, why the hell people would use different kinds of magnets?
from my short experience with alnico 8, i'd agree with every word and it doesn't mean that any alnico 8 pickup will be superior to any other pickup
each magnet and winding combination will result in a different tone and dynamic response
just a matter of taste if you like the final result or not
just a curiosity
i've read that eddie van halen used his 70's ibanez destroyer (explorer copy) on his first 2 albums
that guitar had a ibanez super 70 pickup, which was an alnico 8 PAF style humbucker
I don't hear anything special on those albums, but most guitarrists love that tone