For me, a TDM mode could just be a "practice mode", no high stakes, no grind like Hourglass, no commendations or cosmetics to unlock to not "force" people who don't really enjoy the mode to be compelled to play it just to get the commendations/cosmetics. This is critical IMO. Without these incentives, the mode would be filled almost exclusively by people who'd be there just for the fun of it and/or the genuine desire of improving weapons combat skills. It could be just something like a leaderboard with a K/D stat, limited time like 10 or 15min and a small award of gold in function of your placement on the leaderboard, like Arena had. Additionally to a matchmaking system, like Hourglass (except with no SBMM because it shouldn't be a competitive mode, remember no grind here and nothing to unlock), it could also be triggered spontaneously when 2 players/crews meet and suggest a TDM.
This practice mode would be an effective way for more dedicated pirates to train their weapons combat skills but also for newer players who want to improve. A new player usually has a noticeably brief time window to practice this type of combat before their boat sinks and usually, there is too much at stake, like a 1+ hour PvE loot that is about to be lost. Also, solo players, especially not particularly good ones too, have even fewer opportunities to practice this type of combat because they do not have many opportunities to board enemy boats.
So, this would be an excellent stress-free way for all these people to practice as they wish.
I get that a lot of people don't like TDM and TDMers and I can understand why. But the demand is there. That's undeniable. I can get 2 or 3 fights in a row on Hourglass solo queue which are people just asking me to TDM. When you deny them, these people can be annoying to meet because they are not trying to have a "normal" Hourglass fight so, if they don't feel the need to start an Hourglass fight to look for a TDM, that can also be beneficial for people who do want to have a "normal" Hourglass fight. I also see TDM requests in LFC on Discord and LFC on Xbox. I see streamers, who usually have access to private servers, streaming TDMs 100+ viewers and I even meet people on the Ferry of the Damned asking for TDMs. There's been a clear demand from some part of the community, for a very long time, whether you like TDM(ers) or not.
Without a dedicated TDM mode, only people with access to private servers or big enough discord servers to spike an in-game server (and this can take hours) can do TDMs regularly. Also, there are language limitations and usually, there aren't discord servers big enough to organize TDMs that aren't in English, so that would be also unfair for a lot of pirates out there. Also, spiking servers shouldn't be a solution for anything in the game for obvious reasons.
The mode will always be a niche, don't get me wrong, but I'm convinced, based on my experience as a dedicated player that plays on PC and Xbox, that there are enough people interested in this mode to justify its development. There’s also no need to design a specific location for the mode. A Sea Fort could be perfect, but honestly, any Skeleton Fort or any island could do too. So, just a guess ofc, the development cost of such a mode wouldn't be too high in function of the demand it has.
Cheating and hitreg shouldn't be a reason to not develop the mode as I've seen some people pointing this as a justification for them to be opposed. That would be admitting defeat and not keeping improving the game because of those issues. Other features will be developed that hitreg and cheating will also impact and hopefully Rare can solve or limit considerable these issues.
Also, a "friendly fire" toggle wouldn't be the right alternative for this mode, as this would be unfair to solo players. I could also imagine people hopping on open crews with the intention of practising and other crewmates not wanting it so this would generate some frustrations too. The "friendly fire" toggle imo could be developed as an extra but not as the only solution for the TDM mode.
