I'm sure this was discussed previously, possibly on another forum, but I know I had similar thoughts when I had a D3 (5 years ago)....
From memory, the A8 had a hall sensor in the motor, that the passat does not.
The motor is driven by a big transistor in the control unit (one per side) that had a tendency to burn out (or end up with a dry joint).
On my car, I replaced one caliper (refurb from ECP) which was gummed up, a month or so later the other failed with the same issue so that got swapped also, but I couldn't get the fault to clear which was resolved by buying a brand new control unit - total cost at the time was ~£700....
if you want to use the passat motor, you may also need to look at the passat control unit, but that then leads to questions about broader integration, so was in my view at the time more hassle than it was worth.
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