Itch is the bad guy in this situation. It doesn’t matter that there is a worse party, Itch is throwing in the towel.
I won’t be purchasing anything here ever again.
Give up? Heck no. It's better to actually invest in trying to make this issue more widespread in general public and try to push laws that would fight against that practice. People here have been posting some UK and US petitions, so if you can, sign one of them. If you are able to, reach out to people that could share this situation around and actually make politicians care. Heck, try making EU Initative if you are living in Europe and you are willing to work for the cause. Being angry on itch.io is anti-productive as this problem is widespread on every game hosting platform.
They can't not "Throw in the towel", as you put it.
They can't maintain anything if all payment is cut off. No devs can make money from it if all payment is cut off. Nothing can be sold if all payment is cut off.
Itch simply doesn't have the funds to take a strong stand here. Especially not on their own.
The only real fix is for the whole system around payment processors to be completely redone. Make it a public, nationalized utility.
And, of course, shut down puritanical cults like collective shout.
Valve couldn't fight back because of the exact games being targeted on Steam - they were nsfw games with very specific themes. Fighting that would have been social suicide, which the payment processors (And the cults that own them) knew, which is why that one was much more targeted.
Valve might be able to fight back against a total nsfw ban. But we shouldn't rely on that, because they might just look out for their own bottom lines instead.
People need to fight back against puritanical cults and force the government to hold billionaires accountable. We can't expect capitalism to fix anything, only be happy when it sometimes does.
This is a childlike attitude. It doesn't matter if there is a worse party. Yes, it really does because they think they can get away with it. You have to tell visa and mastercard that they can't get involved with media people use. The reason this happened is because they threatened to stop processing orders to Itch.
Purchasing here or not isn't the concern, the concern is where will they pressure next to remove what content because a religious group is spreading slander and lies about what is in the game
Nooo! By you not purchasing any games the entire itch.io website will collapse (massive amounts sarcasam). You got to understand that itch.io is following the payment handlers rules because they absolutely have to. Itch risks loosing this website if they don't follow the payment handlers rules. The payment handlers are the only reason why itch.io and the developer community (who makes paid games) can earn money. They are the entire backend of all the payments.
And I'm sorry if your 18+ games which you purchased gotten taken down. Maybe it might be a good time to reflect on those purchases of 18+ games and your life if you're having to complain that much over multiple posts. Maybe try to get in a real relationship with actual human beings and not art drawn by them.