To make SFC 1 more like SFB This was done way before SFC II : EAW was on the market, which was almost 2 years before OP was on the market.. Patch v1.03 for SFC 1 was released 14 Jan 2000, SFC II : Empires at War game was released Sept 2000, OP game was released Sept. 2001, and SFC 3 game was released Nov. 2002.. as such, the changges in SFC 1 came before the other games were on the market.. as such, the other games were derived from SFC 1.. not the other way around..
SFC 1, SFC II : EAW, and SFC II : OP are based on Starfleet Battles (SFB) as the source for the games, thus all patches were designed to make the games more like SFB, but also keep racial balance...
SFC 3 is based on TV TNG era and breaks away from SFB, thus the dumbed down interface and controls.
Hope that this makes since.