Would you play a neutral character?

The Spawn and I had The Spousal Unit run Itchee the Gnome Warlock through Deadmines and now Itchee looks like a pirate. Yar! Though we are still doing the same warlocky things, The Spawn is now claiming that her character actually is a pirate -- which, as a pirate family, we encourage. But this reminded me of a conversation I had with TSU a while back. What if WoW had a playable neutral faction?

One of the great things about Star Wars Galaxies, when it was actually fun to play, was that you didn't have to fight much if you didn't want to. There were master artisans and merchant malls that were available for getting the best armor or outfitting your home or whatever. I would love to see WoW incorporate some of these aspects as well as some from other MMOs to make a more persistent world. And I think they could do this by introducing a neutral faction.

What I'd like to see:

All Races: Just like the current Pirate NPCs, the neutral faction could be a ragtag representation of every playable race. Artisan Class: Players with this class would be able to learn 4 Primary Professions. Pirate Class: Much like the Mission Architect system of City of Heroes, Pirates could create quests for other players to complete.
New professions: Merchant, Architect, etc. would be available for the Artisan class. Player Housing: The main neutral faction area would contain player housing as well as a bazaar for shopping the best crafted items on your server. Of course, all of this is unlikely to happen in this particular property of Blizzard, but I can dream, can't I?

Would you want to play a neutral faction? What ways do you think it would be implemented? And would you enjoy leveling without fighting if that were an option?