Comments on Beast form + some general notes / complaints

I'm a new player here and what really enticed me to try out Path of Exile 2 was the Last of the Druids update. I'm certainly not new to the genre as I've played Diablo 2, but it's been a while since then.
So far, I'm having fun with the game and am deciding whether or not to make a purchase. I think you've done good work with this update and game.

I understand the game is still in early access, however here are some notes / complains I've had while playing:

-If I am being honest, the biggest - and perhaps the only - reason my friends were able to convince me to play was the pretense of playing as a wyvern.
I find it jarring to be constantly changing between the beast form and human form when speaking to NPCs, accessing the stash chest and using world objects such as activating levers / taking lifts, and would prefer if it would remain in the beast form. On that note It would be nice if it would stay in beast form even after you get killed.
I don't mind not having an animation for these various actions if that is the reason for this. If you want to go the extra mile and animate it, I am sure each of the three creatures could manage some lever throwing.
Also the running & tripping animation is pretty good.

-An indication on the main UI of which of the two weapon loadouts you have selected would be helpful. At one point I had two different weapons with the same graphic but were using them for different scenarios and sometimes in the heat of battle I press the X button one too many times and don't know what I have out until I go into the inventory. It would be nice to have something to indicate at a glance whether weapon slot 1 or 2 is active. Once I had the talisman, I had been using the second slot for an additional talisman to avoid pressing X and switching back to a person.

-Navigating the friend menu was problematic. Overall it's a clean UI, but I didn't know my in-game # following my login name, and there was no obvious way to view that without logging out to the main menu. A workaround I found was to make a party and then view my name from there, but it would be nice to just see it at a glance. I must have been adding friends wrong too because I could have sworn I typed in their exact name with the # but was met with the "the specified user does not exist."

-It would be nice to hear some of the character's voice lines on the character selection screen to have an idea of how they sound in-game. Maybe a reply back to the person accusing them of crimes, or to read aloud their little flavor text. I really like that any class can make use of the talisman weapon.

All in all, I'm happy with the game, would be happier if I could stay as a creature in perpetuity. I would also absolutely purchase skins for the various beast forms if those were available.