I have an HTC 8S and it worked fine with 8.0, and works even better with 8.1. It cannot be compared to the higher-end versions of Windows phones (8X or the Lumia 9xx, 1xxx series), but I think it was clear when you bought it that it offers a "lower end" experience - the price tag had to have been an indicator, not to mention the specs. NB, Cortana is still beta, and it is naturally limited to the US - they want to fine-tune it for their home market and THEN release it to an international audience.
The low internal memory has been, indeed, annoying, but now, with the 8.1 you can easily overcome this problem as you have to the option of placing the apps and downloads to the SD card.
The 8S was clearly intended to be an intro model for people who wanted to try the WP experience yet didn't want to invest too much money in it. That's the way the market works, I'm afraid.
As far as I'm concerned: the 8S design was, by far, the best of the Windows Phones (and, actually, non WP models as well) when I bought it last fall, and I have still yet to find a handset that appeals to me visually like the 8S did. I'm satisfied with it and I hope that I can find half as good a phone next time when I'm buying a new one.