Such hate for the Cat.
Its the ship I waited for quite some time and I love it for what is it, not the aesthetics. Wait I take that back, I love the way it looks!
Its a transport ship more than a cargo hauler in my mind. Load up your Dragonflies, Noxes, Starship Troopers, medical bay stuff, propaganda, drugs, weapon racks, etc and profit from some smuggling runs. Its also strikes me as a home base ship; something you can do a little of everything in so you may not need to dock and swap out for another ship for certain tasks.
If you wanna just do straight up do cargo runs of raw materials then a Hull A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,Zed are your better options.
The Carrack is fanfuckingtastic for exploration, but that's a totally different role.