One thing about Classic Traveller character generation was that it was beginning-gamer friendly. Someone who had never played a role-playing game before could pick it up and run with it in a few minutes. Traveller 5.0.9, which I have looked at the most, can be a bit overwhelming to the beginning gamer, as is a bit much even for an experienced gamer. Some of the possible character careers are not exactly the easiest to work into a game either. A Scholar needs to be more of an Indiana Jones-type rather then the normal professor-type, while an Agent by definition is not going to let anyone know what he or she actually is, while an Entertainer is going to look for a big a splash as possible. Then there are all of the add-ons like genetics that just do not catch my interest at all.
Basically, for T5, it is more a matter of deciding what you are going to use, and stripping off all of the rest.