Alright, I finally got my hands on the tech demo (was confused from the new build a few days ago and did a few races before realizing that it wasn't the tech demo).
(By the way, sadly, even in the newest build, the menu runs a poor framerate still, but this time I'm testing on, like, a Ryzen processor, not my 8 year old Macbook. 🙈)
I really like the floatiness of the ships. It's hard to get used to, but getting the turns just right feels very satisfying and I feel the new handling forces me to use the brakes more often (which I normally just don't). I'll try to run a few more rounds later.
Not exactly sure how I feel about the 3D effect compared to the raw look of the non-techdemo build.