Not all ships were as heavily armed as the IJN commandeered Nagaras. That said, most IJN commandeered ships were at least as heavily armed as the armed versions of merchants in SH4, and quite a few considerably more so. The IJN commandeered ~1/3 of jap merchant shipping.
The IJA also took ~1/3. Their ships would have had fewer purpose-built DP guns like that Nagara, but they would be heavily armed with AA MGs (13.2mm MGs), and since they frequently carried troops, would have huge numbers of small arms MGs (.30 cals) (at the ready for carried troops).
That leaves another ~1/3 civilian ships. These were unarmed at the start of the war, then lightly armed with AA MGs in many cases.
A random encounter has then maybe a 2/3 chance of being decently well armed.
So, you need to look at the time periods and locations.
US boats certainly could have made better use of their DGs.
In the last few nights I have been on a single patrol in RFB/RSRDC. I forgot to turn off recharging, and followed my shifted patrol area without realizing my fuel state. I was enough under 50% I was worried about reaching Midway, so I put in at Darwin for fuel, and ended up with a few more sinkings heading towards Pearl.
39k tons now, and I finished a couple merchants off with the DG, actually. I even attacked an Aux Subchaser with the DG (I torpedoed him, and he was listing to port heavily, so I Battle Surfaced on the other side. I holed him which effectively counter-flooded him, and had to submerge and finish him with a 2d fish).
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