I absolutely adore romance and dating sims and I've noticed that it is one of if not the most popular genre on the website currently. I believe that the best way to get more people to play your game is to make it look as professional as possible even if you're nowhere near professional level

The first thing that any player will see first is your thumbnail. Making it interesting to look at like a character directly looking out or complimentary colours goes a long way. This might difficult if you don't have original art but there's a lot you can do with just Frankensteining thins together. Of course when it comes to the actual page of the game you don't want to use default font and not include any images of your game as it may come across that you are insecure about the quality of your project, thereby making your players insecure about it too

I've noticed that you're also more likely to get views if you submit projects to game jams as often times a lot of people will tune in to play. But of course luck is a huge factor in the amount of downloads you get

If you like writing psychological horror but still want to appeal to a mainstream Itch Io audience, I'd suggest writing Yandere stories. It has that love story element that many romance players find appealing but also enough elements to let it be considered a horror. Yandere games are also extremely popular on Itch Io but this is only a suggestion as I completely understand why people don't really like those games 

Keep in my mind that I'm no professional and that I'm just sharing what I've seen for the last few months. Hope this helps and good luck :)