Thanks for playing and the feedback!
You're very right about the 1,5-2hours, nice guess haha, unfortunately I couldn't playtest most things and relied on feedback from friends and then tried to get as many fixes in as I could. Still missed quite a few though (These Jams are no joke)
The small plants are supposed to be a kind of "bait/shield" for the main plant. You do loose some hp when one dies, but if you purchase most of the Plant Upgrades, you will see that they help you out a ton!