Easier has more than one dimension (speed, error rate, recall, precision, cognitive load), but the baseline for generic statements is not one particular, very rare task. That's anecdote.

And in this case, the statement was about recognition, not intuition. Otherwise there are counter arguments: there are enough words in UIs which do not have an intuitive meaning either. "New" would be one. New what? File and folder are others, especially with decreasing awareness of the file system under young generations.

I'd say that you recognized the button fast enough, but the wrong function was attached to it. It's as if they would have had a menu item called "Download" which would archive.

> Now imagine my parents who are 60+!!

I can, because I am too.