The first rule of itch club is to not rely on itch for promotion. Or so I understood.
But seriously, you cannot get featured on demand. If you wanna know your chances, look at the tabs for featured games, if your game would fit in there. Having a good game and a trailer and game page and so on might help. Also, search the past threads, this one gets asked now and then. Maybe there are ways to increase your chances.
Also, why do you hesitate to release a demo on itch? It is free, gives you exposure, searchability on google, a place to direct your promotion too, other than steam. You can link to steam from your itch page. Oh, now I read it. Fear for negative remarks. Haters gonna hate, no matter what you do. Biggest danger and most likely scenario is, lack of interaction from players. There are just so many games. Read rule one of itch club again ;-)
My observation is, that most people do not bother to give feedback, ratings or comment. This does not mean, any game is particularly bad, just that they do not bother to interact beyond playing. The instances that people do bother would be roughly three types. The commenter. This is what you want, but comes with statistical dangers. The fan. It is like your mother saying you look cute. The hater. Well, at least they hate it enough to troll.
Your game has references to controversial contemporary people. You are bound to get haters (and fans), disagreeing (or agreeing) with the portrayal of those people. And this includes the protagonist if you wanna call him that way.
And as I see it, the biggest potential to make a player a hater, other than existing, is to promise one thing, but deliver another.