a number of things you might not know Sam:
- when on a mine or herb node, you can have several people 'tap' it, and skill up.
for example ToonA harvests the herb, gets skill up, but DOES NOT LOOT IT. toonB now can also gather the herb and also get a skill up. Toon3 no can also do it, and so on until someone collects the ore/herb.
You will however still only get 1 herb from that ore, but skill points on multiple toons. not sure if it helps you in any way, but hehe, just something to know.

Indeed, there is no point having more than 1 miner/herbalist/skinner in your group, as one guy can gather as much as 20.
That's also what i meant by having 1 gatherer not being enough to supply your blacksmith, engineer AND jewelcrafter. it's just not going to work unless you spend time on the AH or in lower level zones.

Regarding the talents, well for a start i believe they make things FUN, and add a little more gameplay.
That's why i was mentioning getting them on the main toon (the one that is actively played)
Also, as was stated, the early shaman talents reduce the cooldown on shaman shocks.
Also (bis) you are talking about durability loss (or the lack of, since you have no gear) which seems to indicate that you died at some point. Talents offer some ways to avoid that, as in more mana, more armor, wipe saving abilities etc.
Finaly, using talents allow you to *gasp* learn how to play. Of course you dont NEED talents when you have the 26xfirepower. but tell me, what will change at level 70? 80?
You will still have 26x the firepower and still blast through any mob/player you see. Do you intend to remain talentless until then? why not i guess. We're not playing the same game after all ;-)