All of the i/o cards are 8 streams each. Even the expansion port is a set of 4x8 streams from a hardware point.
I’d say that they probably found a clever way of splitting it up in the fpga. The fpga is responsible for all audio routing and it currently does this in blocks of 8.
But as you said, time will tell if we will get it or not... One thing I do know. That magazine has a close contact with the RnD team.
I saw that earlier and I'm skeptical as we've been told by Behringer that the "block of 8" was a hardware constraint and not a firmware programming issue. Either they lied or found a clever way to break it up.
As with all things that get promised, I'll believe it when my X/M32 inventory can do this.