Well if you ask me, I’d say a 12 months demo is way too much to gain practical knowledge of how the market works. Also, 1 month is too little a time to learn anything about what causes volatility in the market and how to strategize. I’d say, a 5-6 months demo time is more than sufficient for any trader to practice his trading skills before going live.
Well, demo trading indeed isn’t a real thing but, there’s no denying that it does help the traders prepare to use the live accounts. I mean, it’s really crucial to place more than 50 trades I would say to sort out how important things like stop order works. Now there are brokers like eToro, TurnkeyForex, Forex com, and Pepperstone among many that offer platforms to trade on like MT4, MT5, that are highly popular. Now would you risk trading without any practical experience in features like charts, technical analysis tools, drawing tools, news feed, trade history, and buy and sell currency pairs?
You indeed put up a strong case for a demo account but let’s not argue that there will be a potential dip in trading when one goes in for live trading even after spending years demo practicing.
I’m glad to be of help and yes there will be a dip when one enters live trading and this is where you need to set a limit upon where you’ll pause, move back to demo and chalk out where you went wrong. Hey, shared one of my strategies with you here 
I think it is important for testing systems but it can’t replace the mental impact of live trading for sure
Yes, Demo trading is important. I’m a beginner, and I prefer trading in a demo account before entering into live trade.
Because the demo account is a tool that helps beginner understand forex and the live trades also allows beginners to get familiarized with the platforms.
It is better to practice on demo accounts initially, it helps in making you aware about the platform and becoming familiar to the market.