Yep, it is confirmed: guns efficiency and damage "decals" are related.
I made a quick mission with a static freighter and bombarded it from bow to stern.
With tweaked efficiency below 5, they donīt show up. From 5 and above they show up to a max of 5 decals (holes) at any given time.
Paradoxically, in the search for realism if we tweak the deckgun to be more realistic, we wonīt see any holes on the ships