Tolkien never passed to Jordan. I'm sure Jordan tried to make that happen by making Eye of the World practically a copy of Lord of the Rings. When you draw a line from Tolkien to Sanderson, Jordan's writing resides far below that line.
If you do podcasts, there's a really good one I can recommend that gives a very thorough introduction into the Cosmere.
However, very nutshell summary:
Read only if you've read the Mistborn trilogy:
Nah. There's just one particular character from Warbreaker present in the book. The last time I read Warbreaker was over two years ago, and it was pretty clear to me who the character was. Though Winterdawn read Warbreaker more recently and figured it out a lot faster.
Yes! Yes! Yes! Though, really, Brandon, it's cool if you use a toxic trope and then have your character address its toxicity, but it would be even better to stay away from the trope all together. Just sayin'.
Epilogue...
I loved the previous two books, but parts of them dragged a bit and annoyed me. This one, I loved every single word. My favorite character is still...