i tend to regard it as a "mini battleship" and regularly use it as a starter ship on a new server though i never have or will trade

Well, if there is enough pirates on a server, trading can be lots of fun... but yeah, the rhino is a good ship.

When I think freighter, I really don't think trade so much as piracy. (And I think -- a ton of hardpoints.)

With a 'fighter,' you don't really get to do piracy, but vandalism. Or at best the piracy has to be really targeted. (Ok, yeah there's nothing wrong with playing smart.) But going mayhem and getting all the goods is great satisfaction (not that we're hurting for credits, of course).

The Rhino certainly can be played as a quiet trader, but it can be played as a combat tank and/or pirate vessel.

Well, that's all Gee-Whiz wonderful...
Now tell me how it's possible to take a level 3 rhino into the nomad systems and not get toasted by the nomads if the radiation doesn't strip your hull first?

That is the tricky thing... when doing the game with the Startracker, thats the one big problem I had - you have to constantly keep up on your bots, and choose your path well... radiation is a *****