Hot take:
New players don't really care THAT much about downed state.
The problem are other design choices which simply aren't fun, choices which this community often defends, cause the pvp-veterans are extremly disconnected from the average newcomer.
Just look at the burn guard threads for example.
There is a reason why we pretty much have a new thread about it every week - yet a big portion of the comments still are just "l2p noob" without every thinking about the impact this stuff has on the influx of new players cause it simply isn't a fun experience.