Exactly. We iused to get demo's all the time for most games, on cd's with game mags etc. Why did publishers stop doing demo's when its a consumer friendly thing?, and why now are publishers being paid to do it?.
Its stupid.
The pushback people say on the internet seem to be these when this topic comes up. Take your pick
1. Demos take a lot of time and resources to make
2. It can be a shit demo, so it turns off people (better to get gamer sales buyer beware style)
3. Gamers dont care about demos because they can just watch YT videos
Probably the only industry in the world where a company doesn't want to do demos even though it doesn't sound that hard to take a cut of a game and digitally release it for millions to try.
For everything else in the world that isn't software, demos and samples are literally physical testing which takes a shit load of money for demo people, kiosk fees, free products with costs. Even a free sample size cereal box probably has a cost of 50 cents per freebie.
Companies would love to do it, but it costs a lot of money.