Yes, I agree with you, @knotty36. In the nikayas, 5 precepts + celibacy seems to be the celibate standard, rather than all 8 full time. I recently started a post about monastery workers that noted a similar thing. The closet I could find to full time 8-precept laity occur under past Buddhas: MN 81, where the Anagami potter Ghatikara only eats one meal a day, and AN 5.180, where a group of lay people under a past Buddha eat one meal a day and then end up ordaining.
8 precepts is hard. Not eating dinner and not using entertainment would probably cut most people off from a social life. Even 5 precepts + celibacy would be hard for most young people, which might be why one of the greatest anagami lay practitioners of the modern era, Dipa Ma, was already a widow in her mid 40s when she started practicing. In Ud 5.6, Ven. warns the aspiring monk Mahakaccana that “solitary meal, a solitary bed, and celibacy” are hard and that he should prepare for ordination by practicing Uposatha (again, not even full time 8 precepts).