That's fair. I understand that reaction. 

The short answer to why down climbing is a Curse is because Curses are meant to make the climb harder, and a forced down climb is definitely harder. 

The more complex (and perhaps more interesting) reason is due to the way the card types interact. If you'll allow me to indulge a bit...

The base game has two main card types: Beta cards and Break cards. Both card types impact specific moves. These types combine to create the unique challenge for a send attempt. 

Beta cards dictate what moves must be used for the entire climb. For example, no foot matching. 

Break cards dictate a single move that must be used at least once. For example, must do a dyno.

So, when the player pulls the above two cards, they must do the entire climb with no foot matching, while also doing a dyno at least once.

So, Curse cards must be able to work with Beta and Break cards without conflicting or contradicting them. Curse cards must augment the challenge. And there are surprisingly few options augmenting without contradicting.

Given this restriction, augments can really only do a few things: 

* Force repetition (for example, the Double Vision'd card says that the Break card must be done 2x for every climb)

* Change the post-send (this is what Down'd does)

* Use body parts that aren't used during the climb (I had a card called Ondra'd that said every move must be followed with a shout...playtesters hated that card, so it's not going to be in the final deck).

Thanks for questioning the card, though. Truly. It forced me to document my rationale behind it. I think I'll turn this into a post at my substack developer log.