Money shouldn't be much of an issue on pink runs, you can get 5 vitality potions without the use of mutated spores in act 1, which you shouldn't need to use on Aura during pure runs, and an extra 10-15 health on an ally can still translate to them tanking an extra hit after you unlock starshine so it's not entirely wasted.
Unless killing the lesser demon is necessary to shave time on your festival of greed date, the main benefit of an early demon kill is to get at the poisoncloud gnome's star metal in the eastern forest of runes, which should give you a decent payday when combined with the skeleton loot further east and the demonic vaults quest reward. Faster festival can easily get you a return on investment on those bombs though, especially during pink runs.
One thing you could try is to summon your slime and move John to the 5th spot in your formation so he only enters the battle after your mucous monster is killed. Still a little rng, but it could help him survive the Avaritas, and a slime rampage can be almost as good as slash.