Really really loving this idea, thanks a ton for doing this. I usually just do a yearly top list of my favourite games to recommend things. But I should definetly take this into consideration too.
Honestly I am not gonna tell you to put me on the list. Only do so if you like my projects (and when you do, I have a bigger project coming out in a few weeks which would get the most out of a little more exposure).
However I will recommend some other devs that come to mind, which have projects I really enjoyed and would be happy if they got a bit more exposition:
JadeLombax (really loved resurface)
Iced Lemon (freaking loved ore from the Age of Gods)
develli (definetly loved Kaizemo)
NuSan (very much loved Fragments of Euclid)
WOAH_MAAAN (absolutely loved Yuuma Game)
Some might be too "well known" (if that even exists on itchio) for your list. So double check if they need that exposure.
And a little tip: Maybe you could allow Devs who've done some 18+ things by marking that their link can lead to 18+ content.
I also just noticed I definitely gotta check all of them out again, most of them got far more cool stuff than just the 1 or 2 projects I played.
Would have loved to put more into that list but I gotta check up again on many devs I don't remember too well anymore. I also noticed I should add metadata for developers in my Personal play-list so I can find single devs more easily.
And now I'll need to find some time to play through some of the games of peeps who replied here. Will certainly be fun.