Different in what sense?
They were manned planes before. With unmanned drones, maybe China could be more provocative
This is good news actually! Drones were always a danger. This forces Taiwan to quickly build up a defense of drones or drone-defeating capabilities.
Or does the fact that China is showing their hand now signal that they are close to using this capability for something big?
Shoot them down. No act of war as it’s unmanned.
I do not think it matters whether the plane is manned or not as to whether it is an act of war.
When they want an excuse to go to war, they’ll make one
They haven’t been shy about threatening peace and destroying free nations. I am not sure anything should be a surprise other than them giving up the oppresssion and letting everyone be. That would be different!
Maybe the PRC is using drones as they can have more control over them - as against real planes whose fuel range has to be limited in case a pilot decides to land in Taiwan and donate said plane to Taiwan (I think Taiwan used to offer USD1M and Asylum for such events in the past).
they just want to have control over everyone as cheaply as possible. Not sure they get much deeper than that.