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 intuitive to me - clockwise is forward, and if I'm looking at a list or reading a document then down is forward. If I roll a mouse-wheel down in my right hand it's also moving clockwise relative to me sitting in the middle of my two hands and looking to my right. If I was left handed it'd be counter-clockwise I guess.
I don't see clockwise as the direction "up" I see it as forward/progress, and forward depends on where I'm going.