Nobody has ever, to my knowledge, actually demonstrated that itch ratings do any of the things they're being claimed to today.
The fact that, from a UI perspective, they're weirdly vestigial has always screamed "we bolted ratings on because Steam has them" misfeature in a painfully characteristic itch.io way.
The fact that bigot fucks try to use them to review bomb queer shit anyway is just — batshit obsessive, frankly?