I would be willing to bet that Rare's metrics bare this out as well.
The volcanoes do entirely too much damage with a direct hit. If you are solo and get hit by a volcano and die, your ship will be underwater when you return, unless by some miracle it is not. IF you do get back in time, and this angers me the most, you cannot access your plank barrel if you are in hot water on a sloop or the brig, but you can in a galleon! So you have to sit there bailing water and hoping you do not get hit again. Ok, I bail water for a bit except... why do Volcano eruptions have to last 10+ minutes? Why does it have to be that long? I mean, you stumble around as if holding the grog chest, the water burns you, the rocks smash your ship, the geysers toss you... for 10 MINUTES! 10! It gets old quick. It isn't fun. It's like playing slot machines in an old casino surrounded chain smokers. You just want to get out of there fast before it scars you permanently.
I just spent the better part of 3 hours trying to survive there to finish some commendations related achievements. I was a in 5 ship alliance. I was the only ship that entered the zone the whole time. All the other ships stayed outside Devils Roar. No one entered it even for a second.
It's just a never ending barrage of random events that constantly beat you down. Being successful in that zone has nothing to do with being a skilled player. The only thing you can do is mitigate risk and extending the time of quest completion by visiting the ONE outpost often as possible. Which also happens to be a volcano!
The place was a bad idea.