Makes some sense, the skill list definitely needed to be consolidated and riggers were suffering from needing more nuyen than anyone besides deckers as well as rigger specific skills like EWAR, Gunnery, and vehicle piloting, as well as stealth, with none of their secondary skills being in a skill group cluster like how Samurai can take stealth to get sneaking and palming. So they were the most skill AND arguably most nuyen intensive role in the game, and if wifi negation was common at your table your super mega intense investment did... nothing a samurai didn't do way better and way cheaper.
I think the issue is more that they killed and merged a bunch of skills but kept some of the old names. As was stated maybe 'Mechanical Operation' would fit better, and likewise Con probably could use a change now that it was definitely going to be more than con. That is 'just' an issue with the aesthetics of a mechanic, but that matters a LOT more than you might think because it takes you out of the game and makes the mechanics harder to learn and understand. There are still so many people who don't get that 'sleaze' for example is an important matrix combat stat because the name is so evocative for what it actually does. Many people skip over Clout as a spell for the same reason because its name doesn't evoke anything makes it seem like a filler spell despite it being the only innately non-lethal direct combat spell. These are the details that help make a game coherent and when they are ignored too often things become sorta a mess, so while the merge was definitely justified it definitely is fair to say 'what the heckin heck?'
