I have no problem with COFH or any other mod developers skipping 1.8. As a player, there is a chance I'll skip 1.8 as well. It's not that I'm holding off because any particular mod isn't present, but more that I don't see enough gameplay change between Vanilla versions to entice me to move. Then on top of that 1.9 is so close on its heels that I'll just be finding a stable pack and starting a world by the time Forge is ready for development to move on by the time I get there. If I feel this way about playing, I fully understand any Dev deciding to go straight to 1.9.
Again, this is good for the scene as a whole as well, as the window of time people play without the go-to mods of old will allow new ideas a chance to shine. If you need an example, look at EnderIO. In 1.6, EnderIO was a neat mod with a cool idea and some powerful pieces, but few realized that because BC and IC were still around from old and TE was coming into King Shit status (opinion, but bear with me). When TE had no ducts (no Thermal Dynamics) in early 1.7, people had to scramble to find solutions without what they were used to, which allowed a newly renovated and fully fleshed out EnderIO to storm onto the scene. Now some people shudder to think of packs without it, just the same as people because attached to IC, BC, and TE before it.
Change is good. Life goes on. Just keep digging.