I did play through Schedule I's "Free Sample". It seems unfinished compared to the current game--the sequence with Uncle Nelson and the RV aren't there, there's a bug where the hardware store won't open like it should, and so forth.
It feels very life-simmy, except instead of making friends you're making customers, and instead of outfitting your pad with furniture and paintings, it's just grow rooms and packing tables.
I'm not sure what the mechanic of punching people is. It just seems to attract negative attention and there's no one to rip you off early game, if anything, ripping off a drug dealer usually is a death sentence.
It doesn't make sense that violating curfew is somehow a bigger crime than getting caught with weed, even if you factor in the sale price of weed.