[Vip]

Always? I thought it was pretty much accepted that if, by some chance, the Hinton survives to the end of the mission, it'll end up getting clobbered by the Iceni on the way out - this is because of the waypoint paths for both being too close. This has always been the case for me if the Hinton survived - the Iceni rams it on the way out.

This data is substantiated by Wiki documentation.

That's strange - while keeping the Hinton alive isn't an easy task, even on the lower difficulties, I had at least several instances (both in retail and in various versions of FSO) that it successfully warped out, without the Iceni ever ramming it.

[Grizzly]

I have to say, FS2 changes a lot the gameplay on Insane difficulty.

I thought Insanity was the unedited gameplay, with things being made progressively easier (extra armor for the player and stuff) once you hit the lower ones.

Although I do recall some missions only give you medals or have extra opponent wings on higher difficulties.

[Dragon]

About the medals, this was the case only in FS1. FS2, IIRC, does have extra wings on higher difficulties.

[Klaustrophobia]

there were 2 medals that you had to be on medium or higher to get in FS1.  you can get them all on very easy in FS2.