Hi there! Thanks for sharing your thoughts and testing out the demo!
I totally get why it feels that way, but there's actually about an hour's worth of upgrade content available right now!
The trick is starting with the "Essence Per Tile" upgrade. It boosts your resource gain so you can quickly unlock and max out the rest of the upgrades. Because this isn't clear enough at the start, it gives the false impression that things are locked, so I'm definitely working on better onboarding/tutorials for new players.
Thanks again for the feedback, it really helps me make the game better!