It's a good point, really.
I am used (especially by car) to use A LOT engine braking while driving, since I keep my pace and, like someone wrote in some other post in some other thread, every time you touch the brakes you're wasting fuel.
Engine braking is fine going downhill, in order to KEEP going slow without gaining too much speed. For other situations, I must admit you're right.
I have to learn how to shift properly: your kind of downshifting seems a good piece of advice to me.