itch.io

They need money man. Even creators who make games just as passion projects, have to pay for artists, writers, and/or coders. Whatever skills they lack, they have to pay someone to help with, unless they happen to have a friend, or, get in contact with other creators who have that missing skill and share their vision. And that's to say nothing of the fact that they deserve to get paid for all the time they pour into it regardless. 

I'm broke broke, like, counting loose change to get a soda broke, so I greatly appreciate people who make free games, but it's unrealistic to expect all creators to make free games. We're not entitled to their efforts and investments. 

Oh no you have to pay $5 so the artists can feed themselves, how horrid.

You do realize that game development is a job, right? And if a game is on Itch it usually means it's a passion project for a small team (often 2 or fewer people), so they're already putting way more personal time and effort into the games than your average AAA dev employee does. And to expect them to put all of that effort in for free is just absurd.

It's like going up to a local vendor at a convention or a stand at a farmer's market and expecting to walk away with a bag full of stuff without paying. Sure, they might give out samples or even let you walk away with a free apple or something, but they've got to make money too. So, if you really want all of your games for free, perhaps you should develop a skillset that they could use and offer to help them out with the process in exchange for a free copy of the finished product. Otherwise, just pay the price or wait for a sale like everybody else.