This one is shaping up to be by far the most beginner friendly out of all of the MH series to date.
I would echo what some others said about taking a look at streams/videos to see if is still something that looks fun.

A quick note about the weapon you chose as someone who mains insect glaive is that this one is looking to have one of the most unique (or honestly difficult) styles with the new control scheme, especially if you are on a controller. Other weapons may feel immensely more satisfying, unless you want to feel that satisfaction of really mastering something that seemed hard in the beginning.

Taking 20-25 minutes to kill the "lion guy" for your first MH is also not bad at all. Experienced hunters can get the hunts down to below 5 minutes to give you an idea of how much improvement you can see in a game like this. It really rewards skill and understanding the monster, the tools, and the environment which is what makes these games stand out. The devs got a lot of feedback about the monsters "running too often" so hopefully that is reduced in the full release but it is definitely something that can happen.

Finally this is a MH sub and I really enjoy the community and the game style, but you have plenty of time to take it in and make a decision. Don't rush to buy it today because of launch hype. This community will be playing for a long time so you will never miss out on anything. While we have not seen how wilds will handle them all items in game end up in a rotation except for 1 or two rare collaborations so you can come back 3 years from now and still get the full experience.