I didn’t play the demo but I assume it’s gameplay very early in the game. My review is that the game starts too slow which is probably what you experienced. Overall it might be worse than Pikmin 3 Deluxe but Pikmin 4 is still a quality game that gets better when you’re around the mid-way point. It’s surprisingly long too (going for all treasure, not speedrunning) and overall I think it’s worth the price.