While reading a preview article for an epic ship, I noticed they mention a change to the firing rules. The Huge ship PDF has one red text errata that I saw, saying that a defender rolls one additional defense die at range 3 and beyond. Does this mean they've eliminated the other defense dice (+2 at range 4, +3 at range 5) and made it so that you only get one additional defense die at all extended ranges?

Correct.

Correct.

Ok cool thanks. I am thinking about getting the Raider soon if I can get some more people back into my local X-Wing scene. Did they change it because hitting things just became pointlessly hard at that range?

yes