That is how it currently works, yes - very powerful but also requires a lot research and can be countered by someone else who has cloaking tech.

We're still discussing how cloaking / stealth orbitals will work in the new system but the two current thoughts are that either stealth orbitals grants a free attack before combat, or the attacker has to make a roll to see if they can target the stealth orbital every round of combat.

For stealth ships the thought is that it acts as an initiative bonus for the first round of combat. (It only applies to the first round since they'd have to come out of stealth once they started fighting.)