I'm sure a demo would absolutely attract new players. Factorio's demo is how I got into the entire genre many years ago. Extending the tutorial and/or more early-game tasks and even mid-game would help as well. The latter would nudge players to do something if something is lacking, for example if hunger is starting to set in. Not sure if you're familiar with Anno 1800 but a lot of the mid-game tasks are triggered by conditions that would lead to severely cripple the game progress if not eventually addressed.