43. I noticed that the NGS and IGS precise ephemeris files are now both 15 day latency. Is this a permanent situation? I just wanted to confirm that 8 day files are no longer available.

This is true. NGS no longer produces the orbit with overlap of data on both sites of the day. The NGS precise orbit is in exactly the same format as the IGS orbit. Since NGS is a contributor to the IGS, you should use the IGS precise. If that is not available, use the IGS rapid (igr).