It's not scrolling though - using the arrow keys on a keyboard or d-pad on a controller you'd use up to go up and down to go down when navigating documents, menus etc. As far as I'm aware unlike when you're moving a viewport either by scrolling or in games there's no debate when it comes to moving a caret.
And as you said, "having grown up in the tape era". Just because it was logical for that application and so is logical to you doesn't mean it's still logical - people who grew up with record players could just as easily argue for two spinning knobs as you're moving a potentiometer to increase/decrease the volume, and spinning the record forward/back; having grown up in the CD era I had both of them being up/down or left/right as the buttons were either beneath or either side of the slot/hatch most of the time, same with tv remotes having both as up/down, and given there was no standard then I don't think either one "just makes sense"