Talents (not from Elite Advances) can be taken by anyone at the same cost?

So a Shrine World Adeptus Ministorum Sage can take the "Lethal Blows" Talent at the same cost of a Feral World Imperial Guard Warrior?

Yes- but why would he, unless he has the training?

Ultimately, I think thats actually the only part of the system that I like. They managed to handle the ability to build "Unique" Characters, while not going all out the same way as BC, and making the entire thing moot.

Once you invest yourself in a branch, your invested into the branch, and can't cherry pick the best talents out of another branch.

If your Shrine World Ministrotum Sage has mastered the art of imparting wisdom and imperial creed by beating it into others, I don't see whats wrong with that.

Honestly, I don't see the issue here; talents are the same cost for everyone, so you are free to grow your character organically and however you want. However, by taking things outside your specialization, you end up paying for it due to increase attribute costs; not a lot of Talents are freestanding, most rely on another system or directly relate to a stat, so fixed talent costs don't mean that the character's role doesn't matter.

Yeah, I'm glad talents aren't affected by role too heavily. Like MorioMortis said, stat prerequisites help manage things a little, and really that's all that's needed. The tree format already stops people cherry-picking too extremely.

I like the ability to break free from the career-ladder restraints in 1e. I don't actually like the talent trees themselves, though. There are so many of them spread out on so many pages, requiring leafing back and forth, back and forth, to make a decision.

Maybe I would like them better if the boxes weren't so boxy. That's a strange criticism, I suppose - but there it is. I do not like the layouts.

I don't find page flipping to be a huge issue, it's not like time is of the essence when advancing a character. I don't use physical books though, so I may be biased, it's easier to flip to a PDF bookmark than a physical page.

But theres alot less pagaing back and forth now, as all the clumps of talents that have each other as a pre-requisite are all in the same general area.

Sure if you want to compare your XP options you might be at a loss, but if you are just trying to examine options within a certain area of expertise it seems OK.