I have done 20 or more Toyota 8" ring and pinion set ups over the past 20 years or so. A few had crush sleeves and most I used solid spacers. I have seen what I think are crush sleeve related bearing failures. I think sometimes somebody will replace a pinion seal and re-tighten the sleeve, over crushing the sleeve a bit on older bearings causing less than ideal bearing pre-load and oil clearance.
I have also seen crush sleeves that seem way loose when you take things apart. As far as crush sleeves in general being stout enough, I recently set up my wife's 8.25" Chrysler Durango rear end and the crush sleeve was shorter and way stouter than the Toyota crush sleeve. I have no doubt that one would be hard to tweak in any circumstance. The Toyota sleeve is way lighter material. Maybe it's enough, but it seems kind of light in comparison.
What I think based on experiences is this: A crush sleeve can work, but it's a bit more vulnerable than a solid spacer because it's cheesy on the Toyota 8". The crush sleeve requires a "just right" amount of crush to do it's job and it's way too easy to over-tighten them during setups, requiring you to get another sleeve. After you mess with a pinion seal you may or may not need another one, which is also bad. The solid spacer is infinitely un-tweakable and as long as you shim it right is good for as many pinion seals as you want.
I choose the solid spacer, for the convenience of re-usability, ease of set up, supposed stoutness and fool proof set ups.
