Both statements are actually false. The pedestal was always in Renegade, but whether or not it was an end-game option was decided server-side. The orca and apache did the exact same damage. The only difference between the 2 was that the orca's machinegun had twice the range of the Apache's (for the record - flying vehicles did not make the original release of renegade, and were added in a later patch, along with the flying maps). The GDI soldier did also do more damage than the nod counterpart, as stated in the renegadewiki page.
As far as a tutorial for Renegade X is a concerned - hold tight. One is currently in the makings
heles rockets go further then orcas too.