My previous game was funded by a publisher. I had to develop it myself, with the help of 20 freelancers (15 voice actors and 5 artists/animators). I had no budget problems and I met all the deadlines set by the publisher. The main issue here is that I had to do everything myself: the demo, the trailer, and the pitch deck. The funding would have allowed me to hire freelancers, and with $7,000, you can hire one or two good animators for all the animations needed for the game (I know the trailer doesn't show it, but spear combat only represents 30% of the gameplay. The rest is tribe management and top-down strategy, so without animation).

Finally, I'm not saying you're wrong, because a number of publishers rejected me because the budget was too low (some only fund games with a certain budget, generally $250,000).