4.) instantly uploading our software to https://www.virustotal.com/gui/home/upload (virus total) to be scanned via Itch internals (opt-in style) with a checkmark at the bottom to help Itch Creators seem less... shady. srsly getting people to even consider itch is relatively difficult due to the lapse in faith in the site itself. this is likely due to increased volume of developers over time while anyone can upload just about anything. of course this can also be counter productive if the service detects something as a virus when it isn't which is why it should be opt in rather than opt out.
Viewing post in Some Feature requests for the website.
Because those scanners are not up to the task. Malware is not like olden days viruses. There is no technical difference between an auto-updater and a malware downloader.
Not even the virustotal thingy is up to the ask. I have seen malware here, that was not flagged there. Some of the scanners used cannot even properly process an archive.
There are several fundamental flaws in the system. At the bottom line is, that itch is not a safe place. It is only relativly safe and that it is a legit site might actually make things worse, since people are not on their guard as much.
Playing games in a sandbox helps a bit. The itch app coincidentally provides such a feature ;-)
https://itch.io/t/1659440/psa-beware-the-try-my-game-scam
On itch.io, it is safe to view the page, but do not download any untrusted software
The psa is two years old and with the growth of itch it is even more important and current.
Being hosted on itch is not in any way a green flag to consider software as trusted. I seen scams here that were years old. The page quarantine only works for direct links. I see indexed and thus not quarantined scams here every week, published on hacked accounts.
Itch is not a safe place to download games. Strictly speaking, that warning about untrusted software should be displayed for every download