Dude, the 8 MB limit is not each and ever block. If the cap is 8mb, and the current block size is 0.5 mb , then 0.5 mb blocks will circulate. The 8mb block is only the cap limit, not the default size.
There's no problem with 8MB blocks but do you have a way to deal with stress testers? Do you know how make their tests more expensive? Higher dust limit and Higher fees?
Maybe we should go to 2MB first which is a 100% increase.
Stress testers? Disable 0 bitcoin fees. If they want to test, pay for it.
A stress test is the same as regular transaction. Pay and then they can send as many TX they want.
0 bitcoin fee should be disabled at protocol level. Minimum should be at least 1000 satoshi.
There is a minimum, not at protocol level but at the node level which is set by default to 0.00005. Any fee under that is not relayed by the node.
Also, the stress tests do not send transactions with 0 fees. They always send with enough fees.