I originally made a custom layout to mimic the Wavelab 6 montage layout (the same tabs from WL6 across the entire horizontal space - with no split tabs), but ended up not using it. You could probably customize in the Audio File workspace to get it more like Wavelab 6 as well. Just take some screenshots of Wavelab 6 and then start moving and deleting stuff in Wavelab 8. But I agree, It would be nice if there were such layout presets built into the next version.
What I do miss from Wavelab 6 is having floating montages and audio files all in the same space. Don’t really like the separate workspaces. And the smaller more compact Master Section from Wavelab 6.
But I would think Wavelab 9 is probably what it is already if work has been going on a year. So just waiting to see.