As it relates to testing. I hit the high seas yesterday to test out the new bow I made and did see several "buggy" things that I think just go along with High Seas.
The more people hitting the high seas, I think the more frequently people will call it out because things are obviously not functioning as designed (I saw a house in the middle of the seas in Tok / a pirate ship without a crew / I've boarded a ship and fell through the deck / experienced a few "ghost ships" that appear on my radar and then disappear without a trace). Allowing people to test would certainly "spoil" the surprise but it's a trade off for having the game function as expected.
Those things have always happened. The Ships that appear for a second on your screen and vanish. When you are attacking a ship, one of my monitors will see the ship normally, while others see it in pieces. My monitors will see a ship I am attacking in different places, so I know not to shoot. Falling through the deck when looting. I see ships without a crew but it is rare. I have never seen a house on the seas that I recall.
Not sure if its just CC, but if you grab and pull a pirate mast up, it messes up the graphics. Sometimes the ship will just sit still after that. If you keep doing it you can bug the ship so you cant scuttle it.
Ship tracking not working for about 10min every hour.
Those issues are already there. I doubt they will change it. The mechanics overall are working.
There are no Dread Pirates on LS at the moment. The Orc ships do not have them. Some that have a Captain don't have Dread Pirates, that's normal. But on LS they don't have those and they don't have a Dread Pirate.