Most if not all android browsers I’ve used so far have the ability to clear browsing and download history, which I’ve now considered is a standard. However Brave has a different behavior when it comes to ‘clearing’ download history. Rather than clear the history itself it deletes the file altogether.
Most users don’t need to see their own all time downloads since they started to use the browser. But do so on Brave in order to keep whatever file it saved on their mobile device. This shouldn’t have to be the case.
If it wasn’t already clear, the OP is talking about the mobile version. I believe the issue was reported more than 2 years ago but we still don’t have a way to clear the downloads list.
It seems that Brave, when deleting the file from the Downloads section, deletes the file REGARDLESS of the location and name of the file.
I had some files in my Download directory and moved them to a different personal directory, then went over to the Brave app and saw they still showed up in my “Downloads” section. I deleted them thinking it was just a history of the files, but after checking my personal directory the files were gone. I even tested renaming the file once moved to another directory but Brave still deleted the file regardless.