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You might want to take a look at the trait Reckless Contempt, which gives a +1 attack roll whenever you provoke attacks of opportunity for firing a firearm. While this doesn't sound intuitive when combined with the Art of the Gun, this will give you an early boost to attack rolls at early levels if you're prepared to eat Attacks of Opportunity for a while. If you get Reckless Contempt, Point-Blank Shot and Weapon Focus ([Firearm]), this means that you get +3 on your attacks, never mind your dexterity bonus that's probably also ridiculous.
You can also combine that with False Opening, which allows you to deliberately provoke attacks of Opportunity to gain +4 to your AC to resolve those attacks before they lose their dexterity bonus to AC, making it basically impossible to miss for you at the level you're gaining this. Shame that the feat tax is so high on this one, though.
Another thing that you need to consider when you're talking about the Black Powder Vaulter is this; Readied actions. You can, at any time, reload a weapon as part of a move action, which includes readied move actions. That means that you can say, "I use my move action to reload my first pistol. I then prepare my second move action to start moving diagonally backwards and reloading my second pistol if any enemy closes the distance to me before it would provoke an attack of opportunity for me to move out of the way."
You now always have two loaded fire-arms that you can fire at the same time if you wanted to AND you've denied your enemy an attack. Pretty powerful at early levels. Because your readied action is resolved before the enemy can resolve their attack, this means that you can basically weave and dodge around enemies and still have one or even two weapons ready for your next turn. Which is incredibly cinematic and cool and probably a little frustrating for your DM. But that's really what the Black Powder Vaulter has as a fantasy, so be sure to discuss it with your DM first so they buy into this class fantasy.
Do note that readying an action is a standard action, so you can't fire and then ready a move action. Also keep in mind that firing both firearms at once incurs penalties on top of wielding them one-handed.
The funny thing about this archetype is that it's basically a trap, while being actually decent. On one hand, it tricks you into a truly atrocious playstyle - after a few levels, a single shot per round (or two shots at 11th level) is just not a meaningful contribution to combat, period. on the other hand, you don't actually lose much (only Gunslinger Initiative), and nothing forces you to use the Shot on the Run crap.
Still, the Mobile Reload, Shot on the Run, and Daring Vault deeds are all only rarely useful, and taking this archetype may prevent you from taking another archetype (most prominently, Musket Master).
The main draw is Art of the Gun, a rather nice ability that's basically Deft Shootist Deed plus Snap Shot, without all those pesky prereqs. It might actually be worth taking two more levels in Gunslinger than usual for this.
free action isn't mentioned, and might be an intentional prevention of abuse with advanced firearms
Er, free action isn't mentioned because if you can reload your firearm as a free action, you don't need Mobile Reload...
The other option is Spring-heeled Style. The third link in the style chain is unnecessary with Dual Shot on the Run, and while the second benefit of the initial style feat (avoiding provoking AoO) will be covered by Art of the Gun, you'll still get a nice attack bonus
Yay, a +2 bonus to your attack roll (against touch AC), and it only costs three feats! I'm positively overwhelmed!
"I use my move action to reload my first pistol. I then prepare my second move action to start moving diagonally backwards and reloading my second pistol if any enemy closes the distance to me before it would provoke an attack of opportunity for me to move out of the way."
You still need a free hand to reload a firearm. The "waste your turn hoping the enemy moves up to you" thing is independent from this archetype.
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"I use my move action to reload my first pistol. I then prepare my second move action to start moving diagonally backwards and reloading my second pistol if any enemy closes the distance to me before it would provoke an attack of opportunity for me to move out of the way."You still need a free hand to reload a firearm. The "waste your turn hoping the enemy moves up to you" thing is independent from this archetype.
I just checked out the Weapon Cord. Apparently this was errata'd? My idea was to get a weapon cord for your pistols so you can drop them and then draw them again as a swift action, but it looks like they killed that.
It was changed by this FAQ in 2013.
The Empty Quiver Style feat chain enables you to treat your gun as a mace, and even apply your Gun Training class feature. Dex to damage in melee!
Empty Quiver lets you treat one handed firearms as a light mace, which can be used with Weapon Finesse. But as you said, Empty quiver style is a LOT of feats to pull off. I do think Empty Quiver Flexibility pays for itself though.