Just to reiterate, episode 4 was amazing! Now, as for the points you raised...
"- Unnecessary Covid talk
- Extremely long intro"
Honestly, from a standpoint of being able to fully appreciate this piece of art, I don't feel the Covid talk is at all unnecesary. It signals the context on which this project was born, and I think that's really valuable, when people pick it up on 20, or 50 years, and do their graduate thesis on "the early yeard of the AVN industry" haha.
As for the extremely long intro, I feel that while it is in fact long, it has a good payoff. At the end of episode 3, when MC is about to throw the ball and has those flashbacks, the audience is left feeling "oh, so that intro had a point - to set up who this character was, wants to be, and why he acts like he is". It makes the moment hit.
So, both being important to setting up who MC is - the event that made him decide to change, and what he needed to change from -, both being part of the work done to make MC his own character rather than just a player self-insert, I'd leave them in.
Ultimately it's your decision though, best of lucks on whatever road you take!