I think this is almost certainly the real reason for the discrepancy.
However, if we play along with the game fiction for a moment…
In 7,703AD the wormhole leading to new Eden open, collapsing in 8,061AD.
Some 15,175 years later (which equates to roughly 23,155AD) during the Gallente-Caldari War, hydrostatic capsule technology was given to the Caldari by the Jovians¹. At this stage, however, it was largely unusable because of the differences between human and (genetically enhanced) Jovian physiology².
On the 26th June 23,236AD, a historic meeting took place on the Jovian cruiser Yoiul involving the five New Eden empires³. Eve Standard Time⁴ was established at this point and the year became known as YC0.
Just under a hundred years later (YC98/23,438AD) clone manufacturers, began capsule research and development to allow for the modification of the original capsule blueprint. This led to a major breakthrough in YC104 (which equates to 23,340AD) when the first transneural burning scan interface was successfully installed bringing capsules into wide use across the galaxy.
Skip forward to today, and we’re currently in Eve Year 122⁵ (23,358AD) and it’s now been around 203 years since capsule technology was first passed to the Caldari.
Based on this timeline, I’m sure that the technology to enable a smaller capsule must be physically possible at this stage and maybe this is something that the CCP developers might embrace at a future point to clear up the discrepancy.
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References and notes*
1 - Capsule Information
2 - The Capsule and the Clone
3 - Yoiul Conference
4 - Eden Standard Time
5 - Yoiul Conference Year Conversion Table
To work out the any Eve Standard Time date, you take the year and minus 1898 from it. Thus, 2021 will be YC123, 2022 will be YC124, etc.
If you’re interested in the backstories and timelines for the empires, these can be found behind the following links:
Amarr . Backstory - Timeline
Caldari . Backstory - Timeline
Gallente . Backstory - Timeline
Minmatar . Backstory - Timeline
Jove . Backstory
