There is an issue about what people expect from a message board. Some companies do have a message board for technical support, that is named similar like this and it is operated by the company and has staff answering the threads.
But Itch's message board is between users. But admins are people too (I've heard) and they are not barred from reading and posting here. This still does not make it a tech support message board.
Actual support issues have to go through actual support. Which is via email.
Problems and frustration arise, because waiting time for any issue is long. Longer than the docs promise. So people complain to support for issues that are not complain-worthy. Not in the way that they are eglible for staff time. Like getting indexed or having comments unblocked. And from what I read, staff might work on those issues, but they never answer any tickets about these low priority things.
I think it is sending mixed signals, that there is an "inofficial" communication channel through the message boards anyway. By posting ticket numbers, after the rules even clarified that the board is not for this kind of support. Mixed signals indeed. Tell people what is not wanted here and then tell them how to do it anyway. I do not know or understand why this is done. From my perspective it only sparks people screaming loudly for things that would clear up by waiting like all the rest.
It is a squeaky wheel gets the grease method. At least it seems so. And I do not like that. What I would have expected it sharing frustration with each other in a community. People talking to each other how long support can take and basically telling each other, that everything is normal, and Itch staff is just overworked. And in some threads I did get the feeling that they were opened exactly for that reason. To check, if everything is normal, or if they did something wrong. Oh, but threads about how long support would take are discouraged. Mixed signals indeed. Maybe it is a language thing, as English is not my first language.
What am I trying to say? Itch offers services on a shoe string budget. And I fear for Itch's future, as they do not seem to get a grip on the support issues. Ignoring low priority issues like indexing and comments are one thing. Those are optional things that are not needed to use Itch (Sell a game, buy a game, download a game). But support tickets for those bog down more important issues like removing malware, double checking payouts and so on.
I would tackle parts of this rather pragmatically and do things like update the docs. Tell people honestly what to expect. The docs talk about days and ecourage people to write unnecessary emails. Why. It costs nothing to rephrase that, so people do not write unneeded mails. If they know that indexing could take 4 weeks, and support will not answer mails about this, that avoids the often seen situation that someone complains in a thread: my game was not indexed after 3 days and support did not answer me after 2 days. Why do they expect this time frame in the first place? Why do they even expect an answer at all?
As for the comment blocking, some people forget the other side of the issue. Developers complaining about all the spam. It would be a lot worse, if there were no comment blocking for suspected spammers. The complainers are a sign that Itch is doing something. It could be more precise of course. But the criminials are working hard on their crimes. Sadly it is literally their job. I suspect they work in one of those tech agencies that professionally also scam people over the telephone. Itch is a side gig for them. At least it would explain a lot.
But here too, the message people get could be better. It could explain more what to expect and how to react.
As for payouts, I have seen how someone was so frustrated that he quit Itch. And for what? Because needed information was not at the expected place. Some tax information was outdated and it was not shown at the right place or not at all and of course, Itch did not respond within a few days as the docs promise.
Communication is an issue. It could be a lot better. It would not even need to be active communication. Passive communication could cover a huge lot. By that I mean giving people information at the right place at the right time, so they know what to expect. It would not reduce waiting time a lot, but it would dampen frustration a lot. Being in limbo about your situation is not a good thing.