Regarding the mercenary voyages - both smuggler and reaper runs, I'm curious as to why they're limited at all. Why not have them available all of the time? Some of them in the past offered a lot of high-level loot for gold, but that could easily be rebalanced, and besides, you're still paying for it with doubloons to do them - and not without risk.
Having them available all of the time on a more permanent basis grows the Bilge Rats, allows for commendations to not be temporarily available (still mad that Rare backtracked on their "commendations always being available" promise), and allows for newer players to try something slightly different and spend their doubloons on, while providing PvP-minded players a predictable opportunity to attack them if they recognize what the newer crew is up to.