If I could force them to generate new chunks outside their pre-defined boundaries, that would be amazing. It wouldn't solve the problem of the tech research trees being limited (I wonder if that could be solved with a different mod), but at least there'd be more to do.

I tried to expand map 05 for someone on reddit once, and it didn't work. It still generates black / empty chunks. There might be ways to change that by editing the lua in the save file, or adding mods that know what they're doing, but this mod can't do it. Also the seed for the map shows as 0, and whatever seed was used to generate it is unknown. Developers copied part of a real map into the 05 map, then edited it manually, especially around the center.

I just want to be able to continue playing on the 5th map of the demo, and all it would take is allowing more chunks to generate, adding oil resources, and unlocking the full tech tree. I guess my only hope at this point is an official update to the game that only applies to owners of the game, and obviously not to the free demo, or someone playing the game without a Factorio account.