When the touchpad is set to emulate a mouse scroll wheel while using a circular gesture, swiping clockwise is scroll down and swiping counter clockwise is scroll up. Of course, you can change this if you want:
Steam>Settings>Controller>Pair and Manage>Desktop Layout>Edit>Edit Layout>Trackpads>Left Trackpad Behaviour>[gear icon]>Invert Swipe Direction
Or just swap the "Clockwise Command" and the "Counter Clockwise Command" under Steam>Settings>Controller>Pair and Manage>Desktop Layout>Edit>Edit Layout>Trackpads>Left Trackpad Behaviour
But regardless of the fact that it can be changed, there must be some logic to why the Steam Deck touchpad behaves that way by default, right? Help me make sense of why some dev team at Valve decided that the default should be "clockwise=down" despite these other common scenarios in which "clockwise=up".
It's the difference of controlling the character (mouse down -> head tilts down) or controlling a camera attached to the character (mouse down -> camera moves down -> camera stays pointing towards the character's viewpoint -> view angles upwards) to me.
The only problem that I have with that is when Y is inverted, but X is not. It's simple to wrap my head around "up actually means down", but to simultaneously have to think "left still means left" is confusing.
In the image if you wanted to turn the character's head to the left you point your fingers to the left.
You're not wrapping your head around it correctly
"Up actually means down" is not what people that think with inverted Y-axis. It's if I pull back the mouse/joystick it's going to tilt the character's eyes up.
Image you are flying a plane and you have a single control stick in front of you.
Which way do you move the stick to climb higher in the air?
Which way do you move the stick to turn left?
Inverted Y axis players are believed to have a higher intelligence.
It's just a different perspective
Most people that wouldn't use inverted y axis for a mouse or joystick controller would fly a plane with a yoke "inverted". Back goes up, forward goes down.
It's easier to imagine sitting in a plane
Like it's easier to imagine controlling a character on a screen if you were sitting in their head with a plane yoke to control. In that case it would be inverted.
Anyone can learn to use inverted y controls. Just it's not the default everyone learns so it's not "normal"
Makes sense. Let's say you are standing with a tower directly in front of you. If you want to look at the top of the tower, you would tilt head back and step back to get a less acute angle. If you want to look at the base, you would step forward.
I find it the most intuitive when thinking about flying a plane.
If there is one stick to control the plane
Imagine a toy plane on top of the stick
To make the plane climb in altitude you'd tilt the back of the toy plane down and point the nose up. That would mean pulling back on the stick.
Now if you stick a head on that stick. To make it look up it would be the same. Pull back.