Is it? It's very difficult to tell given the paucity of details. The 'well-funded, established competitor' was, for instance, able to extract the pilot within 8 hours. Beside the larger point that it was able to achieve its military and political objectives.
A guy with 200 soldiers and a few $20K missiles brought down $60M worth of US equipment. In the big picture it had no effect, but most people enjoy the underdog story.
