Removing the thruster buff isn't really part of this thread, because it affects transports in general.
Unless you want to bring down the Salvager to large transport thrust speed - which isn't unreasonable I'd say, but being the only ship with gunboat turrets and that speed makes it unique, and we all love uniqueness.
It's going to need a major reduction in regens to be comparable to other transports.
Since somebody mentioned liners and Bisons - they are not really comparable.
Neither approaches the effective range of the Salvager; liners get closest but compared to a Salvager are massive, slow, and weak.
See here.
Neither battletransports nor liners have a combination of speed, base hull, and regens comparable to the Salvager. You can play around with those values as I did and you'll get numbers like this:
Salvager with 700 bb - 11 066
Salvager with 650 bb - 10 494
Salvager with 149 thrust speed - 10 907
Salvager with 139 thrust speed - 10 175
Salvager with 100 000 base armor - 10 494
Salvager with 500 bb - 8 777
Salvager with 650 bb, 149 thrust speed - 9 834
Salvager with 600 bb, 120 000 base armor - 9 158
So nobody can claim taking a couple bots away will ruin the ship.
Take away 50, and it's still the most survivable ship bar none - not even the Raba.
Take away 100, and its survivability will only be exceeded by the massive, slow, transport-gun-armed Renzu (assuming the Raba gets a similar treatment).
Take away 100 bots AND bring its thrust speed down to large transport levels, and it's STILL more survivable than everything except a handful of liners (again assuming the Raba is also nerfed).
So please, before you claim its survivability is "comparable" to battletransports or liners, look at the actual numbers. And this doesn't even take into account that it's also smaller than battletransports and liners AND has far superior weaponry!
Edit: Here's another funny number for you: the formula used above creates a comparative value, since it does not / can not account for shields.
But if you put in the numbers, you'll find a HauIV Salvager will thrust more than 22k against a Waran's energy cannons even with its shields turned off the entire time.