Thanks I'm glad it was helpful! Those are good ideas, I'll add them. There isn't a connect hotkey yet but there should be! I'll also put in the settings a section called default node/skill, where you can set default max points and the default icon.
I'm thinking about adding some way to mass edit nodes (node icons, stats) in general, although that will probably take a bit longer. Not sure the best way to represent that, open to ideas on the ui there.