That's probably because that's how every planet is going to look. The idea of letting players visit a hundred full planets will never even meet a fraction of the expectations that a concept like that invokes in people. As soon as this was revealed eveyone knew what they were going to get; a bunch of empty planets with some squigly trees and bugs.Pretty much this. They could have demonstrated this game on literally any of the 1000's of planets that they have, and they chose the dull grey one.
Not exactly inspiring.
Also, it was almost nostalgic to see screen tearing again, but the fact that it was in a presentation... oof.