IMO
harpoon is a failed experiment.
It should not be reserved for defending an ally. No other gun is meant for that.
Every gun in the game is meant to destroy the enemy ship. We, as players, choose to support our allies with those guns and prevent their death by disabling, destroying, or overwhelming the enemy.
A gun, whose sole purpose is to prevent our allie's death, is a gun that has no versatility.
Either
1) create more guns that defend allies. Which means more true support weapons that extend the life of ally ships or
2) remake the harpoon gun so that it has more versatilty or simply does more damage.
IMO - why should a lochnager carronade one hit a balloon but a harpoon gun with lesmok not be capable of the same thing? Give the stupid gun more range, faster reload, and fix your coding so that it still drags enemies after destroying a component (because I know damn well that is why it hasn't been fixed yet)