There is no "old spore". Demos unreleased to the public (and based on my experience unplayable), are not "real".

You are playing the release version of what you call "old spore".

Windows 3.11 looked good in demos too. I don't want to use it anymore.

As I remember, those demos looked kind of universally murky olive drab. I'm cool with them improving on it

I know... you saw something else... but unless you and I were playing it -- I dont' care if Lucy herself says "pld spore existed and we held back the release just to thwart you MWahhhahahahhah!", well WYSIWSG.