I'm a Linux user and I'd still like to get 8bit encodes because 10P support is not stable enough for Linux.
Even in Debian Squeeze, 10bit support is quite stable. Just install both ffmpeg and mplayer/mplayer2 package and use ffplay or mplayer or any other GUI front end. They both support 10bit. VLC can also do the job, but it's a CPU hog compared to ffplay/mplayer (usually less than 20% CPU of my 2.6GHz Core 2 Duo).
The real problem is, 10 bit does not necessarily guarantee a better quality video! There are many 10bit videos on Baka, but they are no way better (or worse) than their 8bit counterparts. Besides, as reported in this thread, some users do find it problematic to demux 10 bit videos!
So just stick to the KISS rules! Whichever version comes with better quality, stays in Baka.
To test video quality, I suggest capturing exactly the same frame using ffmpeg and then using difference function in imagemagick to compare the snapshots from different versions.