Honestly what is better than having a couple of connies? You've already got decent speed, you've got cargo room and deployable fighters that are faster than the connie itself. They've got more than enough firepower to be threatening and if you've got say 3 of them, then there ain't no trader that is going to think they can get away from that or come out on top. If you have to, snubs disable the engines.
Honestly, I think pirates are mostly going to have to hang up the cutlass for it, just because everyone already thinks that anyone in a cutlass is automatically a pirate and all pirates fly cutlasses. Yes they have a bit of cargo room and a bit better ability to put in boarding parties, but it's a red flag as to what you're doing and that cargo space isn't enough for attacking anything bigger than a freelancer. Having a Herald along with every group though I think is going to be a must for Ewar and coms jamming.
There have been some people saying they'l pirate in a BMM, but I don't think it'l be fast enough to actually accomplish that well. As the for starfarer... the spacewhale likely isn't a good candidate beyond extended operations support. There is supposed to be a military variant, but who knows what it'l get.