That's about correct. Long life coolants have lower initial pH than older technology phosphate and borate chemistry, which may exhibit an initial pH of 9-10. In service, the long life technology pH decreases with use at half or less the rate, also. Similarly, the reserve alkalinity starts lower, but the traditional spec is based on, well, traditional chemistry, so it isn't useful.
A search of long life coolants for the automotive industry will show that because the newer additives weren't amenable to the bench test evaluations used for older additives, the traditional antifreeze marketers used it to their advantage. Now, however, field tests by the car companies (resulting in the GM DEX-COOL certification) and long-life marketers have proven the benefits.
For example:
http://www.taligentx.com/passat/info...fe_Coolant.pdf