Yeah you did very well with the time you had.
This is just an all-around well-made entry.
Unfortunately I am a part of the 'felt a bit too slow' crowd. The main attack stops you completely, dashing into those pad things to destroy them, heck even the text has kind of a "reverse buffer" system going on that stops you from reading on even if you try to skip lines. I think the delays were in a little bit of everything which is why the 'too slow' became a common point. But I appreciate that the gameplay delays are necessary to create the kind of play style you were leaning towards.
I think that people's main complaint is that (and this is just my interpretation of the 'too slow' criticism) they wanted to be able to do more with this game shows that it's a top contender.