Ah I see, yes that makes a lot of sense, thanks for clarifying! I did wonder if I should "force" some combat encounters in the demo (e.g. not letting the player proceed until they defeat the zombies), but I didn't really have time to implement it and it probably doesn't reflect what the final gameplay will be like. I definitely agree with your point though - recovery frames sound like a potentially good solution, and I also want to add some "incentives" for players to get into combat instead of just bypassing it.
Thanks again for the feedback!