This is not unusual. The Lane Hacker Gunships are the weakest pirating Gunboat out there, if you ask me, and this is ironic, given the Lane Hacker role. It is the weakest Gunboat in armor (dies to 1 SN without a Cap VI or better) and has the smallest Gunboat powerplant. The Shire should smite an ill-flown one pretty easily.
But, your story is lacking details about whether or not it's okay. Are you an Ageira shipping Engine Components in from Kusari? Are you a Deep Space Engineer moving with Lane/Gate parts? There are a lot of Roleplay situations where it's perfectly acceptable to ask for an entirety of one's cargo. Also, when you lose 9 million credits from death, why only offer 2 millions when you didn't want to fight? As you put it yourself, the Shire is the strongest transport in terms of firepower. It sounds like the both of you just made Roleplay decisions, and it turned out that you were victorious, elating you and causing you to share. I don't see any kind of deviation from the norm in this situation. It really should fit into the bell-curve quite well.
So, to answer your question, no, Pirates are not getting dumber. What we're experiencing is an event where Transports are getting stronger.
[8:32:45 PM] Dusty Lens: Oh no, let me get that. Hello? Oh it's my grandma. She says to be roleplay.
[12:49:19 AM] Elgatodiablo: You know its nice that you have all that proof and all, Bacon... but I just don't believe you.