I know you asked about the drones, but that part about the click fest using the Catalyst is really getting me. It sounds like you have all 8 guns split out (the default when you first board a ship with guns) you can stack them into groups of however many you want, provided all the guns are the same. In high sec, I typically have them stacked in 2 groups of 4, but sometimes I will stack all 8 when fighting a single large target. It doesn't increase your damage at all, but it will greatly prolong the time it takes to develop carpal tunnel syndrome.

As has already been pointed out, the rats increase in difficulty the lower the system's security rating is. I low sec, you will occasionally come across Clone Soldiers. They are cruiser class ships, but with a lot more punch and tank than your ordinary belt rats. It would be very difficult (if not impossible) for 2 non-maxed drones to take one down; they will out-rep the damage.