The alien is incredibly powerful. Aside from being able to adapt to any environment, we see it crushing Parker's head with its bare hands before it finishes him with a bite, lifting Bret up into the vents balancing only on its tail. We see them battering metal doors in the 2nd movie.
The problem first arose with 'Aliens' - as soon as you include more than one of them, the writers don't know what to do with them besides turn them into fodder. Sure, explosive-tip caseless light armoured piercing rounds... but it kick started a trend which was repeated in Resurrection, and every videogame since bar 'Isolation'(only Creative Assembly gave the creature the respect it deserved).
'Alien 3' doesn't get enough recognition... sure you can argue the prisoners had no weapons... but this is supposed to be a facility holding double-y chromo boys...murderers, rapists, and as we see during the attack on Ripley, guys like Dillon can handle themselves... not one of them was anything when faced with the xeno. AvP movies the Alien is always nerfed for the sake of the Predators.
Yes, the Alien is powerful - I hope Romulus shows it the respect it deserves.