I am not exactly a fighter expert, but I think that the obvious is obvious.
I don't know what caused such changes. Everything was almost perfectly balanced before. Until the patch "fixed" what was not broken. Fighters have always been the privileged class, and giving them even more advantage raises questions. But my main concern is that the gap between the new players and the vets has been deepened even further by the removal of tracking missiles, despite the fact that "newbie weapons" had been promised. A new player will find that he can't hit an experienced one with guns, so he will buy a cap. Then he'll be destroyed by 2-3 VHFs, and quit.
Another concern is that HFs have lost their point. VHFs are so much more powerful in everything, and only slightly harder to hit. Their cruise speed is the same.