After the rc1 from last week, now there are doubts related to the size of the next stable version of the Linux kernel. Actually, Linus Torvalds does expect it to be a big release, but Linux 5.8-rc2 seems quite normal, as you enter in your weekly mail about this rc. You don't know why yet and it could be that they took a break after work that they did introduce last week.
Linux 5.8-rc1 was huge, which made Torvalds think it would be the biggest release in the history of its kernel, or the second at best. But this week there is nothing out of the ordinary. One of the features that have been introduced in the RC2 is the EXT4 DAX per-inode support that improves the management of direct access to persistent storage memory.
Linux 5.8 will be a major release, but a big one?
So rc2 isn't particularly big or scary, and falls right in the normal range. We'll see how much of that is the usual "catch your breath after the merge window", and how much of that is just "5.8 seems pretty normal despite being big." Added shortlog, there is nothing that I find alarming. It's a mix of architecture fixes, GPU driver fixes, file systems, self-tests, and various little noises all over the place..
Linux 5.8 has just released its second Release Candidate and usually seven are released before the stable version. This means that if there are no setbacks, the stable version will arrive on August 2, the 9 if they roll an octave CR. Taking into account that Linux 5.9 will arrive already in October, we can almost assure that 5.8 will be the version of the kernel that they include in Ubuntu 20.10 Groovy Gorilla, a normal release that will introduce improvements such as GNOME 3.38 and advances in ZFS as root.