Yea I also use my 30 cargo war brig, the problem isn't the amount of cargo. The problem is with all the cargo I would rather keep being thrown overboard.
Honestly yea I can see replacing loot pouches but loot chests I don't understand. Also I don't think being able to toggle hunters is a good solution since those are like the punishment (and reward) for filling your cargo hold. Hunters shouldn't be in your control, but the cargo you take on your...
If you see it that way, I'm just saying there is a priority system in place, but priorities are not uniform across the board. It'd be nice if you could change your priorities from materials to loot.
So I've been doing plenty of mat runs lately which are great because materials take the highest priority when sailing so it doesn't matter what you get beforehand, if you complete your run then you'll end up with only materials and perhaps a loot skull chest or two. I've begun doing loot runs...