As a nearly maxed TH8, should I upgrade my walls to level 8 (skulls)?

My defences are almost maxed out, but my walls are still at level 7. I'm frustrated by how much effort I've got to put to loot for my walls and I feel like I'm still not getting anywhere near to skulling (upgrading to level 8) my walls. Should I stay or should I go?

I've been at TH8 for so long, TH9 means stronger base, better troops, but lesser loot. I'm skeptic, educate me.

Past around TH7/TH8 or so, you're not going to get more loot by leveling your TH up further. You're actually likely to get less - if your TH is a higher level than your enemy's, you'll get less loot from an attack. Thus, from a loot perspective, being a weak TH9 is worse than being a strong TH8. (This statement is true for any TH vs TH+1 comparison, just using 8/9 in this example)

You've got to upgrade your walls sometime, and if you don't do it now, you'll be opening yourself up to worse attacks later on. This slows down your loot rate even further. So neglecting your walls is a double whammy.

Basically, upgrading your walls is an extremely painful process, but doing it before your TH is always the smart choice.