I must say that I think AX8 is great as is. I am not even sure I really understand what people mean, when they say they want ARES for the AX8. ARES is the new unified firmware architecture. It works on AXEIII and FM3. The AxeFX II (and the AX8) got some of the modelling bits developed for the III. This is great, but although AxeFX II is on 'ARES', it is still not part of the unified firmware architecture. It got a final send-off firmware with lots of goodies.
I am all for a final firmware for AX8 (Hey, it really should go to 11), but such a final firmware should (IMO) focus on being rock solid rather than all kinds of new features. There are a few major bugs reported in the FW10.01 thread that should be addressed, and then, if they throw in a few modelling or FX updates that is great too.