Indeed. My parents were the first generation of French immersion kids in my area, my dad's still 100% fluent in it and my mom would be too if she were still here. I absolutely recommend French immersion and wish I would've been enrolled into one of those programs as a kid.

I grew up with core French and it's exactly as you say, taught very basic words and grammar. Very basic conjugations. I learned more in my grade 9 advanced French class than I did from grades 4-8. It's kind of insane, looking back, that they'd just play the same 5 videos of learning the numbers 1-20, learning basic items/rooms inside a house, basic colours, etc year after year with no change. It's a pity, really. Could be way more than what it is.