To fleshen out this game

You have probably heard and saw everywhere, from first impressions to reviews: SoT has solid core gameplay and nothing else. Can't blame them for saying it, to this day, the game has fairly few assets to play with. This leads to pacing problems, and helps perpetrating a general feel of emptiness.
So, I've come to a few tweaks the game could use.
More hazardous islands. How many time did you sprint carelessly on a shore just to satiate your hunger of gold, feeling nothing else but simply greed? In my case, way too many: while exploring is generally rewarding, it also feels like a stroll in a park. Tweaking enemy spawn to let stronger or more skellies to appear should do the trick. Making them less of a nuisance and more of a threat, even an overwhelming one. Snakes should be more venomous too, honestly.
More enemy variety. Please, give the Eye of Reach to our boney friends, or even some rigged powder kegs. Those assets are already in game, and they'd change DRASTICALLY how skeleton crews should be approached.
Oh, and tune down the snakes. Their hisses are louder than a howling northen wind channeled in a Norway fjord.
Add Cooking. This mechanic should help covering the dead times most people experience while sailing or in outposts. Using different ingredients (because you ARE going to add more ingredients, don't you Rare?), different plates could be prepared, granting buffs at an outstanding cost (5 planks for plate for example. The fire must be high 'n' bright!). We are not talking about combat buffs, but mostly side buffs, like being faster underwater, digging a bit faster, resisting puke or ink. Spices could be gathered too, and prepared at outposts thanks to herbalists and brewers. Who knows, maybe grog could be slipped into too!