You can feel that way, but that’s not what I perceived when I was playing through the demo. It was “leaps” and more “steps”.
If a game needs to be played for 30 to 40 hours before it gets truly engaging, it is not a good game.
Entertainment's goal is to engage. There are many ways to achieve that, but no one should have to slog through tedium in order to get to "the good stuff".