Originally Posted by icemilkcoffee

If you are talking about the part of the bar just behind the brake levers, I can agree that it is downward pressure. But the part of the drops that is further back and closer to the rider is similar to the hoods area- your hand pressure is pushing forward.

People do it the way it's typically done because:
1. People have this binary thinking of either starting from the bottom or starting from the top. They don't think of starting from the middle and going out towards both ends.
2. If you wrap from bottom up, you are favoring the hoods area. If you wrap from the top down, you are favoring the drops area. Most people spend most of their time on the hoods. Hence bottom up. It's a compromise. Whereas if you start from the middle like I am doing here, it works for both the drops and the hood. No compromise necessary.