The flight aspects you describe sound pretty normal to me and the parts of the flight that you were allowed "hands on". But clearly the instructor wasn't doing a very good job of selling the idea of learning to fly to you. Instructors tend to treat trial flight lessons differently depending on whether they think there is a realistic chance of the "pupil" signing up to learn. If they understand that the lesson was bought as a birthday present or similar, and is unlikely to be repeated, they're not going to try very hard.
Did you make it clear before hand that you want to learn?
H