Let's just say that there are very few boards for 2-player games in which you want to get them.
Fixed that for you. Let's dispel this rumor that Pirate Ship is stronger in multiplayer games. Pirate Ship's weakness doesn't come from the chances that you'll whiff and not get a token when you play it. It comes from the fact that when you do get a token, you've also helped your opponent at least as much as you've helped yourself.
It's true that multiplayer gives the possibility of getting a token while only helping 1 opponent and not helping another... which perhaps is a slight strength increase. But not much.
Pirate Ship isn’t stronger in multiplayer games because of the reduced miss chances (though that’s also a plus). It’s stronger because you’re being attacked by other Pirate Ships much more often, and thus you can quickly run low of or out of economy without a good source of virtual coin, of which Pirate Ship is one. This doesn’t mean Pirate Ship is the best or anything, but that’s the mechanic in which it gets stronger with more players.
The "game theory" on that fails, though. If player A buys a Pirate ship, and it comes to me, and I have 4 coins, and I know a Pirate Ship in a world with 1 Pirate Clan is terrible, and a Pirate ship in a world with 2 or 3 is ok, why would I buy one? If I do buy one, then player C is going to get his coppers trashed hard enough that the property you are describing becomes true, where he needs the Pirate Ship to have access to bursts of virtual coin.
Then, as B, my choice to buy a Pirate Ship will have bought me an entry into a fair 3 player game where everyone has a Pirate Ship.
A superior decision is if, as B, I don't buy the Pirate Ship. There is enough symmetry that C will also not buy a Pirate Ship. Now B and C don't have a Pirate Ship, aren't starving for virtual coin, and A has a 4$ opening that's abysmal. Now as B I only have to win a 2 player game, against C.
Why would I join a 3 player game instead of a 2 player game?
Therefore, A should anticipate this behavior from B and should not buy the Pirate Ship in the first place.
The fact that some of us have been C's and sat down at tables with bad players doesn't make the other two players' Pirate Ship purchases correct, even if it makes our eventual purchase correct.