They absolutely gutted the story, showed episodes out of order, recut shit, omitted entire story arcs, the whole nine yards.
Ick. That sounds like they didn't much respect the integrity of the original artists. I can see why they would edit our some things, like the drinking and gore, but it's sad to see that they didn't do three series under a Robotech name like the article said was a proposed idea. I think that would be a fair middle ground. I'm watching Star Blazers right now as I type this and I'm enjoying it, partially because it is kind of campy. It makes me wonder though, what they changed over from the original. I did notice one part, when they caught the doctor in the back seat of a car clearly boozing it up, the dub was saying he was experimenting with a sleeping potion. So clearly, there's at least a bit of change here.