The PDF for the Remaster Core Preview is now available. Seems to mainly include stuff relating to things mentioned in Rage of Elements, including the text of several of the new or renamed spells.
There’s a new rule on focus points that says “The maximum number of Focus Points in your pool is always equal to the number of focus spells you know” which seems very significant, though I’ve seen clarifications elsewhere saying that it’s still gonna be capped at 3. The limit on refocusing to just once is gone, though.
There is a loss of 1.5 damage at range but melee seem buffed you are right. Average 7 damage at lvl 1 instead of 6.5 but ability mod on damage is less random than dices so I think we still lose some damage.