as a followup, i figured out how to freeze the timer with cheat engine, played through it with that (and broke some stuff later)
i would say it is 3 stars without the timer, closer to 4 than to 2 but i may be biased for this genre
i do have a few followup problems and suggestions besides what i stated earlier
problem 1: growth feels kinda flat, the earlier objects are the ones that provide the most growth/effort, yet remain too sufficient,
and speed doesn't scale with size, size also scales heavily with points
resulting in growth feeling more flat than exponential
problem 2: speed is too high early and too low late, animation also doesn't fit
suggestions:
1 make objects give points and growth proportionalish with their actual mass, and make growth costs also scale a lot more, so it feels like you are moving to bigger objects rather than just getting more options
2 reduce running speed (optional), and make speed increase with size (linear or square root either can work), also make the animation's speed more accurate with the movement speed relative to size
3 (minor) make the hedges around those houses either edible earlier, or easier to walk over (they are hella annoying in the middle and later parts)