One thing I learned from a Ransomware attach a while back is how handy it is to have a copy of your download folder. I used to clean up the download folder and I didn't back it up. But I happened to do so before a Ransom attack and it was very handy.
I don't recall Apple's file organization, but on Windows all downloads are automatically placed in a specific folder called 'Downloads'. While my backups are pretty good, I don't do an image archive very often (An image archive is an exact copy of the hard drive and should be able to recover your environment; including the OS, exactly, whereas a backup does not do this). So when trying to recover from a failure, the download is a handy place to get everything reloaded in its original form. Instead of going to each individual site that has the software for download, I can go to the download folder and there they all are. So anything that may be missing once I have done a recovery is sitting right there easy to find. This becomes more useful for those odd little bits of software you picked up but don't remember where you got it. It is also useful for bits of software you got from a place that no longer exists.
I don't recall Apple's file organization, but on Windows all downloads are automatically placed in a specific folder called 'Downloads'. While my backups are pretty good, I don't do an image archive very often (An image archive is an exact copy of the hard drive and should be able to recover your environment; including the OS, exactly, whereas a backup does not do this). So when trying to recover from a failure, the download is a handy place to get everything reloaded in its original form. Instead of going to each individual site that has the software for download, I can go to the download folder and there they all are. So anything that may be missing once I have done a recovery is sitting right there easy to find. This becomes more useful for those odd little bits of software you picked up but don't remember where you got it. It is also useful for bits of software you got from a place that no longer exists.