> Yep. There's only so much that human senses can perceive. ;-)

True, and it's a shed load more than 256 levels.  The attached photo 
demonstrates nicely, see how with only 8bits/channel there is almost no 
detail in the clouds at the top, nor in the dark wall and radiator at the 
bottom? I can assure you in real life I can see a lot more detail.  Once we 
get display devices with higher contrast then higher bpp will surely follow 
to better replicate what we see with our eyes.  IIRC cinema projectors use 
16 bit/channel already.

> (Similarly, "CD-quality audio" was invented, what, 20 years ago? And it 
> still hasn't changed to this day...)

That's because not many people can hear higher than 20 kHz.  Add in 10% 
margin for the anti aliasing filters, and with a 22 kHz nyquist frequency 
you get to 44 kHz sample rate.  There isn't much incentive to go higher, 
although DVD uses 48 kHz.  16-bit per sample is also probably ok, because 
that correpsonds (IIRC) to a roughly 100 dB range of sounds, which is about 
what the ear is sensitive to while listening to music.  (OK if you wanted to 
reproduce a pin dropping and then a jet engine in your living room, you 
might need more than 16 bits to get it sounding good...)

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