Hey there,
I’ve read all I can about the two payment methods. However, I am struggling to find compelling reasons to let itch collect payments on my behalf.
I think the reasons you mentioned in your spots are pretty spot on, and displays correctly why someone would choose either option.
Tax is arguably easier with itch, but there is a big barrier to entry with the tax interview and the following confusion when tax withholding percentage is incorrectly displayed.
I would say this is a pretty big reason for why someone would let Itch.io to collect payments on their behalf. This is a place that welcomes users with any type of knowledge. A lot of indies just want to focus on making games, which is already a very difficult process, and want everything else taken care for them.
If a user has the resources required to do taxes manually, that’s exactly why the option “Direct to you” is available to them. At the end of the day, giving choice to users is a good thing.
TL;DR initially it says the delay is for fraud prevention, and then changes to say that the delay is to allow for refunds; neither very convincing).
Just to clear things up a little, once a payment is made, it will be held by Itch.io for 7 days, in case of a refund. After than, you can request a payout of that payment, and then it will go into review by the admins, which is where the fraud prevention review takes place. I have no visibility on how that review is handled behind the scenes, but I believe every payout is being approved manually by a person.
The phrasing on the itch page contrasting these two payment methods seems very biased towards itch, and makes it sound like going with “Direct to you” is a complicated process fraught with danger, which is a bit of FUD as it actually just takes a few clicks (one to choose it, and one each for PayPal/Stripe)
From personal experience, I would say the “Direct to you” adds extra responsibilities to the developers, so it definitely is something that users need to be aware of. Also not entirely sure what you mean by biased on Itch.io, I find the table on the link you mentioned to be quite pedantic on who does what on each payment option.
At the end of the day, if you look at the bigger picture, getting your money 10 days earlier will not change much. There’s definitely users trying to take advantage of how open this platform is, and that’s why there’s so many checks in place.
Hope that answers at least some of your questions :)