Sure you may not win many fights in it, but it's the 'best' gunboat for a freelancer as far as RP and immersion are concerned. It has the most believable scale for a single or small crew combat ship, most of the other open gunboats look much larger - so they're fine if you're going to RP out an entire crew to keep them flying, but for a lone character or 2-3 man crew the civilian gunboat fits the best hands down.