If you make a page for your game, and make it public as ‘in development’, once the game is actually released, have you any less of a chance of making it to the front page of the site as it’s not a completely new announcement and less likely to be noticed by whoever curates these things?
As far as I’m aware, projects are curated for the front page only if they are completed. In fact, games are being picked manually for the front page, based on a number of factors, assuming it’s a “good enough” game. So I wouldn’t be surprised if a game still in development was also picked.
When you mark your project from “In development” to it being finished, make sure to make a devlog marked “Major Update”, so that your game will be “re-launched” as a newly released game (pending manual approval from Itch).