It's a feature-rich template, the demo has all features enabled... just how many of those features you wish to use is entirely up to you.
Much of the load comes from images, of which there are many on the homepage.
As mentioned, Jack managed to get his homepage to ~20 requests / under 350k (!), simply by adding Max CDN and disabling some features.
Every store owner should take steps to optimise their site wherever possible.
Here's an insightful video I found.