The reason why I was confused was because the update post never said anything about paying if you already had the game
2 years ago (+1)
edited for clarity.
having the game via free download is not the same as having the game after donating for the download. let me clarify this a bit more, and i apologize in advance if something i say comes across in an offensive manner.
downloading the game via the "free download" option doesn't mean you own the game, it means that you have downloaded it as "freeware". downloading the game after donating the minimum amount set for the "purchase" of the game means that you now own a copy, as you technically paid for it.
sadly this was not made very clear in the update titled "Update News and Future Pricing" due to the fact that the creator was not entirely sure how itch.io handled things when it came to price changes. BM_Rec was not entirely sure about the effects of the price change, as evidenced by one of his replies to a previous comment. this is a direct quote from BM_Rec that you can find below if you feel like looking for it.
The updates will still be free, but what I said was that I'm not sure how this works on itch and if you wanted to make sure that you keep getting the updates for free it's best to buy the game as long as you can choose the price yourself.
I'm still not a 100% sure tbh, but I guess if you can't download the update you'll have to buy the game.