Gamecube doesn't have enough RAM to preload everything at startup like that, you have to go through the menus and pick a game mode and map to load.
Surely if it needed that startup load anyway, then Sakurai wouldn't be saying he turned the license down in order to get players in the game faster. I'm going to trust Sakurai's word here!
Bear in mind that Kirby Air Ride came out in 2003, on a console that's only meant to be hooked up to CRTs. How many users back then do you think would've had access to this feature in the first place? Or would still be playing this game if/when they upgrade later?
Yeah, the online being fake is appalling. Sega knew in advance that this game would be completely dead online, meaning no one's playing it. They knew what would happen and they took this deal anyway.
While my 2021 essay did aim to be as thorough as I could in criticizing PPT itself, all of my criticism of the game is secondary to my greater criticism of how Sega handled the series afterward. I wonder if being too thorough may have caused that thesis to be lost in the woods, but I hope this video today hammers that point back home.
If Sega had followed up PPT1 with a full mainline game, using its commercial success as a jumping off point for the series to go onto bigger and better things, I wouldn't be so frustrated today. But instead of doing that... we got Apple Arcade.
I already have enough zillion-hour games to grind, I don't need every game to be that. As much as I love JRPGs I have a hard time setting aside time to finish one these days since I have too much else I also want to play.