I've noticed that a lot more trade fleets seem to get lost than in 0.9.1, and while that doesn't matter much for the core sectors it can really deflate (already nerfed) player colonies. My colonies seem to have at least one trade fleet lost at any one point in time, sometimes as much as three at once, and depending on what is lost that can costs me multiple tens of thousands in profit. And colonies have serious problems generating that much anywhere but late in their development cycle, so it really doesn't need another strike against it.
... I do think there are some flaws in the specific tree that could be improved ...
(I just want to say, I absolutely agree here, and appreciate all the feedback!)
For what it's worth I guess here's mine:
One, there's just not enough skill points, 15 points to choose from 40 skills is just not enough, especially when some of them very much feel like "mandatory" skills - Special Modifications is basically the new Loadout Design, in that respect, so that's five of your very limited point pool spend already if you don't want a fleet that's losing out on a fair chunk of power. Which, based on what I've heard about bounty fleets containing a half dozen capitals and three player fleets worth of officers, well, good luck surviving that with a few (CR crippled) [REDACTED] ships instead of better, beefier regular ships.
Second, the whole "reach the end of the tree, then you can go back and fill in the rest of the tree" is a nice idea, but in practice it often leads to you needing to pick skills which don't work together in order to pick a skill that does. For instance if I wanted to max out the industry tree because I want many profitable colonies I'd need to pick both Field Repairs (passively removes d-mods) and Derelict Contingent (gives officered ships bonuses for having d-mods). The skill tree is trying to do two things at once, offering different playstyle choices and allowing you to get everything if you're willing to invest that much (too much, honestly) into it, which doesn't work.
Third, although I'm sure it's more a "me" problem than a "game" problem, same as in 0.9.1, there's no way to get fleet-specific skills any way other than to get them yourself. Combat skills? Hire officers. Colony skills? Hire administrators. Of the 40 skills ingame 22 of them are player exclusive or at least have some kind of player-exclusive effect (Ground Operations' raiding bonus), so it seems like a no-brainer choice for the player to grab them. Especially since many of them have pretty powerful effects in their own right.
Fourth, the option to raise maximum player level in the settings is basically a trap option at the moment because it'll increase the experience required regain story points in the end. Apparently that can be modded easily, but, eh...stuff is little more than voodoo magic to me, and I don't feel like "it can be modded" is really a solution either.