I have no idea if Rare is planning anything for Smugglers but here's my idea on how to get them into the story and at the same time add a cops and robbers game mode.
I also want to point out I'm not a multi-million dollar game company so there are a few holes bit nothing that can't be filled in at a later date.
Smugglers quest may be boring but they pay out big. What if they are in opposition to the merchants who payout low-average to the rest of the emmersaries. What if the merchants give out that low because of taxes or greed. This round of Smugglers can finally be sick of low payouts and laying low so that's why they are giving out nukes.
The next Smugglers update they can get a proper faction, and what if you could buy offensive weapons like the barrels and the skull with the objective is to sink merchant ships. The merchants are now tired of the Smugglers taking their money and blowing everything up so they now invest in defense weapons like mines (similar to ghost ships mines). Reapers have their own weapon in the skeleton chests so giving other factions weapons they can buy/find isn't new.
