Thank you for the thoughtful comment and sticking around the post until the end ( I know it's long, but I indeed have a lot to share haha)! It's really nice to directly hear players like you, no matter what your background is! As for marketing, I do think I need to strategically reach out to press or people with an existing audience, which will become the focus after I complete store page work on steam in Aug. And of course, I'll update the polished itch store when the time comes. As for demo improvement plan, I think it makes more sense for you to try out demo 2.0 when both new sprites & contents are added. It's great that you have expressed interest here, since I can just note your contact down and reach out to you when I start the playtest!
Glad to see you around here as well! Have a wonderful day, and hope to see you soon in any future updates(i.e. store update, Aug update, etc)!