The R8 has the same subject detection as the R6 MkII, and I generally leave mine in auto as well, unless I'm exclusively shooting one type of subject, like I'm at an event shooting people, or an airshow shooting aircraft. It works great. Any problems I encounter are typically my fault. The R8 doesn't have an AF nub on the back of the camera, but you can use the screen as a touchpad to manipulate the autofocus point, which is really handy. However, sometimes I'll move the focus point around with my nose or my cheek or something, so I've been experimenting with the different settings for this feature, and considering just turning it off entirely. As long as my nose isn't getting in the way, the subject recognition in auto works wonderfully.
