Default reply options were a hot topic of discussion at the GCPC last week, and it looks like Mary Beth Raven, and the design team got the message, in this post they solicited feedback on Reply with or without attachment by default, and the community responded loud and clear.
I can’t say I read all 100 responses, but in scanning through them I think it was unanimous that the default reply action should be without attachments, and we have been heard.
This is definitely good news for 8.0.1 and going forward, yes it could still be better, policy support and user preference settings for the default reply options would be even better, but if changing the default is all I get for 8.0.1 I will take it.