Well, I have not had trouble with it, but I see what the OP means. In the case of shift levers with PRNDL, one is normally shifting from P to start out, so all the gears (including R) are downward. So maybe pressing down for D should be intuitive for everyone, but possibly not R -- at least not from Park. But yes, once you are in D, then it is up for R, and from R it is down to D, so in that sense the Tesla/Mercedes arrangement is consistent.