Thanks for your kind words!
I'd rather chase exposure outside of distribution platforms.
Sure. Looks like your confusion comes from conflating exposure with distribution, which are not the same thing.
In case that's not clear enough, I'm not chasing exposure on Itch. I'm using their storefront infrastructure so that people who find out about my game outside of Itch have somewhere to buy it with fewer strings attached than any other distribution platform.
FWIW, I tested that Hive Time runs through the Steam client when added as a non-Steam game before release. If you really want to play it via the Steam client, that's an option.