I was thinking the same thing...
and, if a website is worth using, then, telling those users that, using a better or more modern web browser, won't really be a burden, as long as the browser designers don't make it a burden to "upgrade".
So, if the big sites, like Facebook and Google and Amazon and eBay and the major news and information sites, made it known to their visitors that, they would have a much more enjoyable and fruitful experience on their sites by "upgrading" to the more modern, up-to-date browsers, then I'm pretty sure that there would be a huge migration away from IE8 (and any other older browser).
That is the only way that Microsoft, and any other browser designer, would try to keep up with current standards, or even future standards.
