OK, but there is clearly less vertical space on the M8 than the M7 when the on screen buttons are visible, which is the vast majority of the time. Seems silly especially when you're looking at the HTC logo bar below that.
Have you ever heard of immersive mode? It's a new feature in KitKat that allows apps to go fullscreen, thus allowing the M8 to use all 5 inches of its display. More and more apps support immersive mode every day.
There are launchers with immersive mode...
Google Now / Search has immersive mode...
There are reading apps with immersive mode...
There are gallery apps with immersive mode...
There are twitter apps with immersive mode...
There are texting apps with immersive mode...
There are lockscreen apps with immersive mode...
There are file explorers with immersive mode...
There are RSS readers with immersive mode...
https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...id=com.twentyfivesquares.press&token=iHbKD1iE
Heck, immersive mode is even coming to Chrome browser. You can enable it in the beta version now.
Not to mention, every video playback app and most games out there support immersive mode already.
So you can certainly make use of the extra screen real estate on the M8 a lot of the time, and it will only be easier to make use of it going forward as more apps add support for immersive mode.