my 2cents.  UV mapping should have no effect on the smoothing.

I dont see the smoothing issue you mention, but I dont know what its intended to look like either.
Unwelding some endcaps and selected points may help. 

I would finish mapping and see what you get.

A wireframe view would be good. I usually unweld any flat areas, Poser 5 tended to mess them up trying to smooth them.