I don’t know what u r missing here!
People download torrent, play free games, get in love with some of those free games, come back to itch to thank or donate game developers, Find other games of the same developers, & play those other games or even buy them. [Its a great marketing for itch!]
What I’m missing is your explanation why you think having torrents as an alternative option to download the few games, that are neither age restricted nor accept donations, would be a big marketing move for itch - or anyone else for that matter.
I could replace “People download torrent” with “People download games directly” in your post and the situation you described would be the current situation. Like I said before: At no point in this thread did you point out the relation between Point A (having torrents) and Point C (“Profit!”). There are also a lot of other logistical issues, like the aforementioned age restrictions (and some newer developers maybe not tagging their games appropriately), version updates, getting all of the affected developer’s consent…
Let’s try this:
Suzy Strawman (age 12, Capricorn, USA) is very tech-savvy and wants to play a free, independently developed game that’s age appropriate - but “a good one”. As a tech-savvy person, she’s looking for a platformer with X-Box controller support, with a user-rating of 4/5 or higher (because that’s the new 2.5/5 now), that maybe has pink in the screenshots (because I happen to like pink), with a female protagonist, and that doesn’t run on Unity. (Because her friend Melissa from school said they have opt-out telemetry that isn’t even opt-out for many games and that John Riccitiello is a former Electronic Arts CEO.)
So where does miss Strawman go from here and how is her situation improved by your torrent idea in contrast to the current situation.