Ah that's a shame, this is my first jam and I haven't really used itch so I wasn't really aware of the HTML distribution method. I can look at uploading a version after the jam if you're still curious about it.
FWIW, a good chunk of the game is in reading the documentation. It's sort of a "RTFM the game" game, so there was always going to be some form of download required - but I get why downloading random exes isn't appealing!