I've just made the jump from a MK7.5 Golf R estate to a 1 year old ex-demo vRS245.
The cockpit and dashboard are miles ahead of the Golf and is pretty much everything the Golf should have been. The vRS does let itself down a little bit with cheap plastics here and there.
As for the infotainment etc, I've got used to the Octavia now and it's easy to navigate and use. As already mentioned above, it takes a bit of time to get used to it but have patience.
My other half has. Golf Mk8 r-line and the infotainment in this is really distracting to use , especially with the soft touch buttons on the wheel. The infotainment on the Golf, amongst other things, was enough for me to not even consider it as a replacement vehicle.
I find the Octavia a good balance between my old Golf with mainly conventional controls and the Golf Mk8 which is too far the other way. Voice control is a massive help as it takes away the need to look at the screen etc.
Took me a little while to get used to the Skoda infotainment but now I have , I find it quite easy to use and very functional.