That is not what I was talking about. I was talking about what happens when a free game (with files) changes status to paid - and you had donated while it was free.
My summary, for the purposes of the library view and payments, was: games that appear in browse under free games show up in the library under donations. Games that appear under paid show up in regular purchases.
I was assuming that it is the current status of a game, that dictates how it appears in your library.
https://itch.io/docs/creators/pricing#pricing-options
$0 or Donate — When trying to download the project, a payment of the suggested donation amount is requested. The viewer can click “No thanks, just take me to the downloads” to skip payment and access the files for free. Note: If someone pays for a project, they are granted ownership to it
So if I donated to a browser game without downloadable files (or a free game with files), and the game later gets a dl version added and is changed to a paid game, it should appear under purchases and I would have access to the files.