Alright, then here goes.
Frankly, I find the Rebellion (or the Jedi) being friendly with the Hutts as utterly ridiculous. The Hutts are the greatest threat and source of evil in the galaxy at the moment. The Hutts deal in narcotics, deathsticks, slavery, support pirate rings, etc. And without an interstellar government capable of combatting these interstellar illegal groups, they will grow stronger and fill the pockets of the Hutts, while making the residents of 'Indie Space' suffer.
The Hutts earn money from that suffering. The very same money the Rebels are hoping to grow by. The best thing the Rebellion can do would be to be hostile to the Hutts. It would show the people of Indie space that there's someone willing to fight for them. To defend them from slavers, pirates, and gangs of hooligans just doing what they want. Someone to stop individual planets to go at war against one another. Someone to represent what the Alliance once stood for.
It might make sense for the Hutts to wanna grease the Rebellion. But not for the Rebellion.
I agree that the Jedi and rebellion's ideology conflict with the Cartel's, but doesn't that add to the fun? If over the course of the story the rebellion is forced to accept Cartel aid in order to combat the Empire, the individual characters don't have to like it. I believe that in-character tensions and hostility between allies would serve to enhance the role-playing experience.
I simply look at the Cartel as opportunity. Which is how I'm using it. It's the easiest form of gaining riches, and I plan to do a lot with those riches. One of which is helping a certain indie faction get bigger and stronger, and eventually combat a big-bad group a bit north of our Galactic position. The next is gaining control of a company, produce some stuff, move up the ladder of the Cartel. Another, is gaining a lot of friends and contacts with some big-time criminals, since they most likely got a lot of money too and be a good help. Anything further than that, well, I'll just roll with the punches and see what happens.