At one time if you looked on many of the Top Fuel cars you would find a 8 3/4 rear end. They were lighter and gave no trouble.
Fast forward to when Top Fuel cars strated getting traction and were hooking up. 8 3/4 quickly disappeared and were replaced with built 9 inch and with built Dana 60 's. Fast forward more and you find Those also began breaking and now they are using a huge pinion gear and a huge ring gear in a special made for them rear end.
All of my earlier experiences of negatives and positives with rear ends were all on clutch cars. The 8 3/4 was the weakest. Now possibly an 8 3/4 will handle an automatic car fine at a much higher power level with less initial torque hitting them or with a little tire speed.
Unless someone has recently started making them, you could not buy a 9310 Nickel gear set for the 8 3/4 and they were available for the 9 inch the Dana 60 and the 12 Bolt GM. That also is a brute strength issue.
Ed