Argument with local B&M donks has me second guessing myself

[Courtesy Flush]

I was playing at Oceans 11 last night when the following situation arose. I had two spewtards to my left who loved to raise trash pre-flop, so I limp/shoved with AQc and they both called me with 88 and K8. I missed the board and some old people at the other end of the table praised the 88 and commented on how "the best hand won." I know I shouldn't even say a word here, but I couldn't help myself and interjected that my hand was in fact best in that scenario. They all argued with me of course, but finally conceeded that I was ahead %-wise while still maintaining that 88 was the "best hand." I conintued to insist that AQc was the best hand because of the %, but they all agreed that 88 was "best" because of it's immediate ranking against AQ. This is when I realized we had different definitions of what makes the "best hand." I see where they are coming from, but it just doesn't seem right to me to label a hand that's behind as "best."

So my question is, what do you consider to be the "best" hand? The made hand or the one with the highest winning %?