A yes or no would be helpful here. I'm still confused, maybe that's intentional
If you want the 0.17 and future releases on itch.io, then it's a yes. It works like steam now. Apologies for the confusion. There is also a demo which includes everything up to 0.16.
If 0.17 becomes public eventually, it will be the last version to be out for free. So buying the game once here ensures you will be getting 0.18 and forward