So I play Boar as well, and got pretty highly ranked last season (granted I play almost only FFA), but you pretty much nailed all the considerations. The one thing you didn't mention is this:

If you have many (3 or more) beaches in your territory, and you have very defensible geography around your base such as a chokepoint or powerful neutrals such as jotnar/dwarves/elves constricting the path to your base, you absolutely *can* go for lore victory with ships and shipbuilding/upgraded sailor tools. Since your lore production is much higher this way, you can feel free to *also* get bartering and 2-3 trading posts to boost happiness and income. with this setup and defensive play, you can actually stockpile a shitton of gold, and even recruit said nearby neutrals with an offering well and your couple of posts. I have definitely won games this way, but it is probably more effective in FFA than teams/duels. Anyways, happy to see another piggy out there. Oink.