Ha haa, it might seem like that Gunnar, but no, not biased towards either of these...
You would prefer the Max, as you probably make videos mostly, or only, thats clear, and I would too if video was my preference, we agree.
But I mostly go for making pictures captured from video, only a few videos, and Hero 8 seems a lot better for this.
Max has 1440p resolution in 4:3 video when the same field of view (one side only)
Whereas the Hero 8 got 4K now.
When you crop the view even further for a picture, resolution is of utmost importance, and more than 4 times higher pixel resolution than the Max
The video quality in itself, as video, is just as good on the Max from what I've seen now, true, well in fact I find the Max got a tad better colours when looking at the different test videos.
And if you use it for video, the fact in can level in the cam, instead of post, is a huge benefit
But for captured pictures, also the Max should run without the in-cam horizon levelling, for highest picture quality - so for my use I would have to do it afterwards on both cams, If I want level video.
With that in mind, it does not make much sense to go from 12 million pixels down to 2.7 million in resolution, and reducing the bitrate almost 30% also, going from 100 Mbit to 78 (Hero 8 and Max).
Unless the quality is a lot higher on the Max of course, as the numbers in itself is only part of the truth always - so here all the comparisons put out public is great, and one can see the video looks pretty much the same, thus for picture captures the 4 times higher resolution is a benefit.
The right tool for the job is what I seek - so as pretty even in video, and resolution higher and physical size also 20 % smaller and lighter, the Hero 8 seems to do it better for pictures.
Whereas for video (only if you dont need 360 of course) it is pretty even, thus having the option to level in cam, AND have 360 view on occasion too, makes the Max a lot better for video.
IMO after having looked deeper into these now.
It all depends on your use and preferences
Peter
PS: Regarding the post horizon leveling app, I could get a tablet just for this, before passing it to the computer, but sounds a bit silly