Most people play with the controller parallel to the ground, at least most of the time. So imagine that the thumbpart of thumbstick is the head of your character on the screen, the front part of that pad is the face, and the stick is the character’s neck.

Now pull that thumbstick towards yourself, the neck leans back, and the face leans upwards.

Push the thumbstick forward, the neck leans forward, and the face looks down. The airplanes could have made the controls work the other way, but that would make little sense to how the plane works…

In this case, the main problem in my mind is that people think of the controller as being perpendicular to the ground (as it is shown in diagrams on screen) and play with it parallel. If you play with the controller perpendicular to the ground, default makes the most since, and pressing forward now means up, and pressing back now means down. It is really an orientation thing.

Of course I could just be overly pleased with my neck and head metaphor.