I think I understand why piracy circles were so good

because you were essentially engaging in illegal activity, it did self-selection and excluded anyone prone to fear

so the communities there were very wholesome and honest, because it's from fear that people spawn dishonesty, justifications, delusions, drama, etc. it was like a paradise on earth, an earth mired in a toxic soup of fear, but in there instead there was a pocket universe untouched by such psychological aberrations. there were no worries or anxieties. people prone to such wouldn't have dared to step in these communities to begin with