Yeah, Orphan Gang is like Herbalist, it's a weak card you don't really want in your deck, but that has an effect that is kinda critical such that you sometimes need a little of it in your life. It's on of Daramek's few feed food outlets but it has an awful health-per-card ratio. Unless you need a way to convert food into a useful product, it's more disappointing to draw than a coin, and it's definitely more disappointing to minion-draw than every other minion but Rats.
The health-card ratio on Goats is only a little more impressive. I would mostly stick to fat stuff like Herd of Aurochs that makes your always drawing a minion consistently powerful. Lepers is good too.
I think you are really using the wrong paradigm if you think Ratcatcher will "fix" a deck that chokes because every hand it draws is easily answered by 1 or 2 skulls. Ratcatcher is going to draw a random minion from your deck just like Esra does, so if you are letting the quality of an average minion tank too low, the Ratcatcher is just going to remind you of that (well, and add one more health to your board, for free, which is why it's a great card, but that's not quite my point)
Try to pull your minions' average fattiness up. And try not to buy small minions just because they're in your bank, you don't always necessarily want them in your deck yet, and when you buy something weak it becomes possible to restock it.
If you get the rare card Colossal Aurochs, you can beat some really pimped out legit decks just by saving up and buying it off the top of the bank for the occasional random win if they don't have an answer like Seduce in their bank. It is one of the loveliest things.