I can understand people not wanting to '
have to' do the Black Pearl in order to get to the Raven's quest. Afterall, we're lazy pirates and who wants to
have to do anything? I honestly don't know, but
IF this happens to happen,
there could possibly a reason behind it that we don't know yet. I don't think that anyone said, "Let's make this as grueling for them as we can". I'm just thinking positive that there may be more to it than we're seeing right now. *shrugs*
Best not to speculate, and let the developers do what they're doing.
If they have come this far in developing the game, I think we can trust where it's going. However, the quest on a whole is pretty long and
(if) we have to finish it, could we please kill off Giladoga and Mary Lash? Perhaps they can face some unexpected wonderful tragedy.
They don't even help with the final battle, so who really needs them?