Yes, and another point is that INTER cell HO has higher priority than INTRA cell.
Anyway if we consider Active mode operation before and after the change we have the following:
Before: MS measured All 13 BCCHs in Active mode (the same as in Idle). Only measurements for serving cells and 6 the best candidates are reported to BSC. But among these 6 reported BCCH/BSIC combinations there may be cells which ARE NOT DEFINED as Adjacencies. So HO attempts can be initated to less cells.
After: MS measures only BCCHs of Adjacent cells. This means that to any of BCCH/BSIC combinations HO attempt is possible. -> we have more HO attempts for INTER-CELL HO, because BSC is aware of more candidates and more correct decision will be taken. -> HO success increase is expected.
This is logical.
But what is the relation to Rxqual degradation – thus more Intra-cell HO are performed and more TCH drops are detected.