Interesting. But it changes a bit for developer. Almost each developer wants their games (assets too) to be played by more people. How the games are sorted in search are a secret of itch to not be abused but we certainly know that stars influence it and when give someone a star you not only make their heart warmer but it will also give a game a bit of promotion which is kinda valuable too.
About support. When you star the game, those who are subscribed to you see that you starred the game in their feed so you spread the game among your subscribers which is also support
I had also looked at your account. Just in case if you want to support your favorite itch games more. If you had viewed pages of other users, you probably had noticed that some people place on their page playlist with name "supported by <name of the account>" or "Things I like" where the person adds games they liked. When my game was added in two such playlists I got 15% boost of views. My game is trash so gets little of views but still it got +15% of views. When authors of those playlists added more games to their playlists and my game was hidden from views of those who came to their account pages I loosed the boost of 15%. If the game is popular and you have a little of views of your page everyday it will be a little for the game but it is still a result. As a creator of small and shitty games I can say that if someone adds my game to the playlist of this kind it is a holiday for me
Also there is a dedicated thread on itch to share games you liked (isn't for assets but though). It is also a great support for developer.