Just tried the demo yesterday. The tutorial’s integrated into the gameplay in a way that didn’t feel obstructive to me. It’s less like an old-school sandbox tutorial and more that the game makes it obvious what you have to do for the first mission. And it seems to focus on the new mechanics since the basic stuff is already made obvious by overlays showing the controls.
There will be people who have no capacity for nuance and see this as a boolean thing, and for them: the tutorial’s not skippable, no. But for most people, it shouldn’t be an issue.
“Casual rescue mission” is a fun phrase. It fits, though. The first bloke I “rescued” in the demo was snoozing like Gulliver when I found him.