Captain snarkbite needed the nerf,not necessary because he was too strong,but because he was too versatile.
Before the nerf,he pretty much got everything,a good snipe with a generous splash which also got a better zoom, a good ammo count,decent shotgun which is also ammo efficient. And of course the rest of pirate kit,which still have his OP parrot.
After the nerf,he just lost his "good snipe with a generous splash" for a " decent snipe with a splash". Yet,he still got to keep all his other advantage.
I would say he's ended up being a more "noob-friendly" variant of deadboard now. Even then, a good player would still be able to take advantage of his splash to finish people behind cover as well as his good ammo count to rack up kill.