actually IE was never removable because, allegedly, it was part of Windows Explorer and it was impossible to uninstall in the truest sense

I can't find anything about MS considering IE8 an update and not a program
IE8 beta 2 was available via Windows Update but only if you had Beta 1 already installed. I downloaded mine from the IE8 site

majority of the internet still uses IE so I don't think it's going anywhere any time soon.