The only thing you’re really getting with the 9 over the 8 is better hardware design. Personally I miss the full visor, but not enough to look over the 9. If hardware doesn’t really matter as much to you the 8 is cheaper and will most likely reach feature parity with the 9.
The best part about the “they control the weather” theory is that they are posting an old military patent on social media. What’s funny about it is that, American patent law being what it is, even if it was real it would prove nothing. I could file a patent for a working dragon; that doesn’t mean I have access to a fucking dragon. It just means I have ownership of any dragons that work like the patent I submitted. A patent is only to show ownership of an idea and nothing more.