Forgive my frankness, but suggesting that anyone who points out systemic issues on an established storefront should simply "use AI to prompt a competitor into existence" is a completely surreal argument.
As for the analogy: Itch.io is explicitly framed as a digital marketplace for indie creators (their words, not mine). Asking for basic curation, functional search, and responsive support on an actual store is not asking for anything crazy or unreasonable; it is asking for the bare minimum of a functional platform.