The level on control over the boat (not much!) helps to make the main mechanic a bit more fun/comical, and I think there's a similar inherent humour in how the rubbish and animals work which helps to make the level of polish feel like an intentional choice. I think there is a decent foundation here.
Scope creep is a really difficult issue that can be hard to tackle, and I'm sympathetic to the pain of cutting aspects that you were really looking forward to! Your initial ideas were really interesting, but given your stated limitations I think you made the right call to cut what you did and focus on the main mechanic. Your release plan sounds like a good way to tackle adding them back in to reach your release state. Good luck!
That being said, the rough edges are very noticeable, particularly when design elements are dropped and you're shown default fonts and particle effects. There's some really nice pieces of art in game, such as the level select screen and the little steering wheel at the bottom of the game. However, I feel the need to ask, are 2 or 3 of the promo images (including the title screen) AI art? There's a confusing amount of distortion in them and the style isn't used again throughout the game. If so, I think this is a huge shame that detracts from your hard work - AI tools are immensely wasteful from an environmental perspective as well as ethically dubious. Hopefully if it is AI you'll consider replacing these with some great art from your artists, who did a great job in the other areas praised above (if that was them).