Mission difficulty jump

I'm on my first game of Xcom 2 and I just a massive jump in difficulty in the way missions are laid out. I almost feel like the minor mistakes in resource management in the early game just all caught up to me at the same time. I'm suddenly meeting a ton of robotic enemies with high hp+armor in missions where the timer makes it impossible for me to dispose of enemies while also completing objectives.

I just had a mission with a VIP rescue with a generous 12 turn timer so I was pretty confident. Turns out getting to the VIP + getting to the extraction would take a full 6 turn. The VIP is literally half way between the spawn and the evac, while being surrounded by 3 groups of enemies including a sectopod that needs at least 5 squad members to take down.

Did I mess up my game by emphasizing engineers over scientists in the early game? Did I mispend intel in the black market making my contact making too slow?