It is strange that you cannot get 8 stained glass panes from 8 regular glass panes and a dye in the middle. People that end up crafting normal glass panes end up having to smelt sand, just to get some stained glass panes and is also a waste of resources. Plus, it is possible in reality to stain glass panes aswell, instead of only being able to craft them from normal stained glass.
WAI. This is how they were meant to be crafted (using normal stained glass).