You give a multipurpose ship to the junkers, guess what happens? A lot of people traded their IMG gunboats for Salvagers, and a lot of people traded their Pirate Trains in for Salvagers. We do a lot of trading, and a little bit of fighting. The salvager is often out trading, but if we're in a fight, it's more than likely a salvager will be there too.
I veer towards transport personally though - it's the size of a transport, and it looks like one more or less.
But, it's definitely a hybrid, and it's definitely being used as such.
As for jinx's post about liner classification on the page before: Could your argument not also be applied to Yachts? Yeah they're inefficient, but that's a mechanics question rather than an RP issue. The liner classification seems very much like an RP distinction.