The way to improve the S-Pen is to make it non-spring-loaded like the GN 4. The spring-loaded S-Pens, which began with the GN 5 are designed to break. Just my humble opinion
Doubt it'll be called the Note 8. The Note 8.0 was a mini tablet by Samsung circa 2013. I won't be surprised if the successor to the exploding Note 7 will be called the Note 9