I believe so, yes.
This may have been a slight over-reaction to the HW method, where side-kick abilities were defined as being X points below those of the PC. (I forget what X was, but it was a fixed amount). This resulted in some very odd effects, such as increasing just the one top skill so as to improve the sidekick abilities and their augments, and the Amazing Shrinking Duck, whose Small ability in one campaign reached several masteries.
Personally I'd suggest that the rules as given *are* for starting characters, and that a new set of numbers is neeed for more experienced characters. Perhaps if we looked at how far below the PCs ability levels the sidekick is, and applied that as a starting point, but with no automatic increase thereafter?
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