They want to have a way for users to pay them. Itch.io has that, homebrew doesn't.

Okay, but then the argument that Apple is charging them to certify their software and that is excluding hobbyists falls away doesn’t it? Now you’re not a hobbyist.

1. Having a way for some users to show their appreciation by paying you a few bucks doesn't make it not a hobby

2. The expected income is way less than the developer fee, much less the expensive hardware required.

Publishing a tip jar link is going to be possible no matter how you distribute. The desire to use itch is about wanting to sell.

There is no reason to tie the method of payment together with the method of distribution. They could distribute it through brew along with an optional license configuration. Downloading a cli from a browser is not convenient anyway. You need to copy the downloaded file somewhere that is loaded into the PATH.

And also, software that is downloaded from itch.io app does not require notarization.

You could set up a patreon and print a link to it when appropriate. That's basically what Vim does.

homebrew voluntarily applies the quarantine flag on casks (ex: apps) so you still need to pay the apple dev tax to distribute your mini app that way, itch.io does not so you don't get the lying scarewall