The Internet is full of videos of horrific 747 landings. No collapsed landing gear -- ever. The airplane can, and often does, land in a crab. However it is important to differentiate between landing in a crab with the airplane tracking the center-line and landing with sideways drift. The former is fine, the later is bad. In either case the landing gear will be OK, but don't expect any Christmas cards from tires 7,8,11 or 12 (body gear/aft) if you have a lot of sideways drift!
As for -8 brake energy, look it up in the QRH. You will find that reverse reduces brake energy on a heavy weight landing by 40ish%. You will also find that autobrakes 2 is "better" than autobrakes 4. So if you are concerned about brake energy on a -8 when landing near max landing weight, and you should be, your approach is correct. Full reverse, low auto-brake setting, flaps 30 -- in about that order.
And no, the brakes are not "completely different". They are the same technology as what are on the -400, just "new and improved". I suspect that we have the same employer, and part of the reason that the company is burning up -8 brakes are the loose cannons running around -- many of them in positions of authority.