Hey Richard, I just purchased my Note 8 this week. I have to say, my first venture into Samsung land is leaving a bad taste. The first thing that happened is that it completely hosed my Google account - for the tablet itself and my HTC phone (had to dump cache, database for Google Playstore, framework and download manager... several times on both devices before it would finally work again)... and now KIES.
Agreed, that you think we (Canada) would also get FOTA updates.. but not yet at least. And KIES has been very frustrating. I downloaded "KIES" as per instructions... KIES then told me that my device was incompatible and to upgrade to KIES 3 (which didn't make sense, but I followed instructions)... Installed KIES 3, which promptly told me that my device was incompatible and to download KIES 2.6... which it redirected me to their Korean website.
So I installed 2.6 for a second time, this time checked for updates first (which it said it was up to date).. and at least now it connects, but is giving me the same FU, we don't support your devices firmware for updating... so there seems to be no upgrade path right now. Think my next email will be to Samsung.. maybe i'll just give them this link.
Have you (or anyone) queried Samsung on this?