Kudos to the IE team for making the HTML5 DOCTYPE invoke "super, super" standards mode without the <meta /> element. Still unknown are the XML and XHTML MIME types, one can only assume those trigger super standards mode too.
So it turns out that IE8 will trigger "IE8 Standards Mode" for at least the HTML 5 DOCTYPE, and according to Chris Wilson "any unknown DOCTYPE".
This makes the proposal of the <meta /> element a little more palatable, but I still feel it isn't enough.
It seems the IE team recently announced that IE8 will have a new rendering mode. This hasn't been controversial, or news in the slightest. ;-)
One bit of news that I've found agreeable in the recent IE8 rendering switch debacle, is that IE8 will support the HTML 5 DOCTYPE without requiring the <meta /> tag switch. Finally, some sanity.