From the developer side the "ensure they are updated to the latest version" is the best part. With itch I am never sure that people know that there are updates and they are not playing the latest version (even though I do display a message on the title screen). For instance, in the last month since I released Build 42, we've had people play all of these versions. This is at least part of the reason i want to switch to Steam. As a dev, it's frustrating to see people playing older versions of the game!
Build 42.8
Build 41.8
Build 41.7
Build 40.6
Build 36.6
Build 39.3
Build 15.6 (this is the old demo)
That being said, I do understand the concern over DRM. A lot of people don't realize that Steam DRM has to be enabled by the dev and I don't plan to do that. I'm not sure that Steam can't remotely uninstall the game, but it means that you should be able to move the .exe folder and contents and break it away from Steam (at least I think that's true).