And it’s actually a requirement to pay $4.99+ for the version sampled, isn’t it?
When you click download, and the pay screen comes up, there's an embed to click on where it say's "No thanks, just take me to the downloads".
If you want to play a public build before supporting, or cannot, or choose not to support for whatever reason, you don't have to. There are specific Itch listings that do not have a public build, and that embed won't be there.