Good stuff. I also don’t think itch should adapt a full “superindie Steam” push, but that ties into its internal identity crisis where it’s unclear if it’s Newgrounds, Bandcamp, or, well, Steam.
As you point out with community profiles, itch’s UI/UX is generally a mixed bag. Took me a while to understand that people use collections as a sort of backlog, too. They actually have all sort of uses: as wishlists, as a way of featuring games you liked, as a way to organize certain things you want to play on stream, as a way to sort out your “library”, and even as a way to organize and design your own creator profile. It’s a versatile system and I understand itch’s hesitation to put in a “proper” wishlist collection when collections would suffice, but it does harm the site’s “flow”, if it makes any sense. It’s like the pieces are there but they’re all just slightly off.