Vertical spacing of \tableofcontents in Beamer

Question

I would like to spread the titles of the ToC with two columns, like in just calling \talbeofcontents alonw. I tried with multicol and minipage, but it didn't work.

MWE:

\documentclass{beamer}

\usepackage{multicol}

\begin{document}
    \begin{frame}
        \frametitle{Outline}
        \tableofcontents
    \end{frame}

    \begin{frame}
        \frametitle{Outline}
        \begin{multicols}{2}
            \tableofcontents
        \end{multicols}
    \end{frame}

    \begin{frame}
        \frametitle{Outline}
        \begin{minipage}{\textwidth}
            \begin{minipage}{.4\textwidth}
                \tableofcontents[sections={1-4}]
            \end{minipage}%
            \hfill
            \begin{minipage}{.4\textwidth}
                \tableofcontents[sections={5-8}]
            \end{minipage}
        \end{minipage}
    \end{frame}

    \section{Section 1}
    \begin{frame}
        
    \end{frame}
    \section{Section 2}
        \begin{frame}
        
    \end{frame}
    \section{Section 3}
        \begin{frame}
        
    \end{frame}
    \section{A slightly longer Section 4 for the example}
        \begin{frame}
        
    \end{frame}
    \section{Section 5}
        \begin{frame}
        
    \end{frame}
    \section{Section 6}
        \begin{frame}
        
    \end{frame}
    \section{Section 7}
        \begin{frame}
        
    \end{frame}
    \section{Section 8}
        \begin{frame}
        
    \end{frame}
\end{document}

Answer 1

I found a solution based on the answer of a previous question: using a minipage inside a columns environment, and modifying the height of the minipage with the parameter [c][0.7\textheight]:

\begin{frame}
    \frametitle{Outline}
    \begin{columns}
        \begin{minipage}{\textwidth}
            \begin{minipage}[c][0.7\textheight]{.45\textwidth}
                \tableofcontents[sections={1-4}]
            \end{minipage}%
            \hfill
            \begin{minipage}[c][0.7\textheight]{.45\textwidth}
                \tableofcontents[sections={5-8}]
            \end{minipage}
        \end{minipage}
    \end{columns}
\end{frame}

However, I sense it is not well horizontally aligned.