This is where I'm confused I guess. In my world you could basically use a really good link management tool to do all your downloads as well. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if things workout the way I we think they will with heirarchical categories and a revamped link section, you should be able to make a category/section called "downloads" and maybe even say it's only a link area. Then when people click on the "downloads" section they enter that part of the link library.

I guess I might be confused on what the difference between a download and a link is. In my world a link can be a reference to anything. Web sites on another server, your favorite news item on your geeklog site, a tarball of some really cool TTF's on your site (or someone elses). make the links what you want.

I think you'll get all the functionality you'll want for "downloads" although it might not be called "downloads" until you name it (: