Note, I kinda remember some Ufopedia statistics in vanilla UFO were wrong, they didn't reflect the actual stats (or relative stats of different crafts/weapons, when there is no absolute scale).
I play in Veteran difficulty (3/5), and I can confirm that at this setting, I noticed the small crafts were noticeably harder to crash - especially if I use a craft with a cannon and a missile, and voluntarily disable the missile. But then, this wouldn't have been possible in the vanilla game : Either my craft has missiles and I likely destroy it, or I shoot it down two times more quickly with two cannons, and certainly get a crash site.
This recent rebalance is rather a improvement, in my opinion. Do I waste costly missiles to ensure the alien mission fails, or try to force it to land for an easy land mission, but risk missing it entirely.