I have heard this before, and have to call old wive's tale on this way of thinking....
As long as your bolt is rated for it's use, the 8 will ALWAYS be stronger than the grade 5. You would not choose your bolt based on how it will fail!
An example if you think 8s are weaker (or fail differently) in shear.....Have you ever put a 8 in place of a 5 in a PTO shear pin application? The 8 will not break, but the 5 will shear, saving your equipment. 5s shear just like 8s, but at a lower strength.
I would love to see some real lab testing to show that 5s fail any differently than 8s when they reach failure. Anyone have anything?