That's not accurate at all, the beta was revolutionary - you could play with the physics, the gravity gun.

It wasn't a proper game yet for sure, but as a 2003 tech demo the beta was one of the best, you could recreate the legendary E3 demo [1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ddJ1OKV63Q

Yeh I recall the leaked version quickly gained a poor reputation. I had zero interest in downloading or playing it. Not surprised that sales of the final release were unaffected.