Where do you get suggested featured games?
There is one featured list and that is the same for everyone. It is a tag like quality. And they include it on the homepage.
https://itch.io/games/new-and-popular/featured
That list should have the same ups and downs and instability like all the other browse lists.
Your game will appear on the suggestions after like 3 months, when the algorithm has analyzed the relevance of your tags in relation to peoples tastes. There is this button related games, that appears roughly after 3 months. Or so I assume.
The game, after being indexed, will appear in the most recent list (sadly with publishing date and not with indexing date) and again after some major updates are released (no guarantee). This might give a small boost, but ultimately, as itch has pointed out repeatedly, do not rely on itch for promotion.
I am not even sure how much the featured list is used, but that is based on my bias, since I do not use it at all. Mostly because I do not land on itch homepage, where the featured liste is ... featured. If you click browse, you start with popular list. And that are games that are popular. You do not need to get featured to be popular (might of course help).
To activate featured games on browse, you have to click a not easily reachable button.
Popular New & Popular Top sellers Top rated Most Recent
No "featured".
It is hidden here under Misc
With Steam keys
In game jams
Not in game jams
With demos
Featured