The main reason VG1 & VG8 trade at a discount is the fees. The...

The main reason VG1 & VG8 trade at a discount is the fees. The fees are not going to change. If you think the fee structure is too generous toward the manager then consider buying shares in VGI.

Another reason for the discount is the poor view the market has of the underlying portfolio. This is something VGI could easily fix.
VGI publishes a monthly NTA statement showing the top 10 holdings along with a little bit of commentary on their monthly performance. I like these reports but why can't we get this weekly?
If an investor is savy, they will want to know what stocks the fund holds before they buy. But the monthly reports (that come out on the 8th of the next month) are always 8-39 days out-of-date when a prospective buyer is considering buying shares in one of these LICs.
The savy buyer will also want to know the current NTA, not the NTA from last Friday's close. Why can't we get a daily NTA instead of weekly? On that point, in this modern age, why can't we get live NTA?
Without up-to-date NTA and underlying holding info the buyer needs to take a leap of faith that the underlying investments have not tanked since the last announcement.
To make this blind-trading situation worse, we are constantly reminded that the directors and staff of VGI are "investing along side us". Except they are privy to the exact up-to-the minute holdings, NTA, research and intensions of the manager. That puts the retail investors at a distinct disadvantage compared to the VGI insiders. I'd prefer to be told that the directors and staff are prohibited from investing in the funds, and instead their hefty performance fees are incentive enough to do a good job.

Disclosure: I hold VGI but not VG1 or VG8.