"The site takes a huge cut"? It's 10% and you have the freedom to lower it to 0% if you want.
There's actually 3 different fees/taxes we have to pay:
- Itch.io cut, which is 10% (the one you are talking about, fixed value);
- Payment processor fees (varied, we can't change this one);
- Tax withholds (sale tax, you can only lower it so much).
Overall we lose ~35% of income from itch.io sales, and that's BEFORE we pay local income taxes, which is another 20% in the Netherlands.
For comparison, Patreon takes only 5%. That's it, nothing else. Obviously we have to pay income tax on it too, but it still leave us with ~80% of our overall income, instead of ~55% from itch.
The problem with itch is that you SELL your game here, which adds a mandatory sale tax, while on Patreon you can avoid it by publishing your game for free.
Just to clarify, we have nothing against itch as a platform, it's great for what it is, but it's not ideal for us in our current situation.
Sadly, ever since we had to move out of our home country for safety reasons, we're in a rather tough financial spot, so we have to maximize our income in every way possible. That's just reality of things.