But.... Back on the previous MPTS ("B" I think, but can't remember) when I went through, 3 "downs" was a quick trip to the man. Unfortunately, I can't remember if an UNSAT equaled a down back then, so I'd be curious to see what you remember, and if it was just "different" or applied incorrectly (squadron/wing-wide it would have seemed if true).
MPTS B and MPTS C are the same as far as what an "unsat" is and how many are required to put a student on the road to attrition. It isn't 3 "unsats" that leads to a TRB and visit to see the Commodore. It takes 3 consecutive "unsats" (or an "unsat" on a xx90 event) that leads to the IPC/FPC process. If the student "unsats" the FPC, then the student is off to see the Commodore. There really is nothing in MPTS ("B" or "C") that resembles a "down" except, maybe, an "unsat" on an FPC.
Back then (under "B") there was no "down". When the old system was dumped for MPTS (not much before '00), "downs" went away. During the transition, there was a great deal of misapplication by IPs thinking an "unsat" was a "down" and few "unsats" were awarded. During that time it was difficult to attrite the poor performers since the IPs were not properly documenting performance. That persists among some IPs today since we still have lots of IPs who were trained under the old system and are having a tough time forgetting it and applying MPTS rules.
The unsat I gave the other day would have been a down in my day, as yours I'm sure.
Most of the "unsats" I gave, and there were many, would not have been "downs" when I was a student. The treshold for an "unsat" is much higher than a "down". In other words, a student can fly much better than "down" performance and still be awarded an "unsat". This is why you will see many yellow sheets in a students jacket (and why we don't want to fill them with the more serious pink sheets).
If all IPs award "unsats" when MPTS criteria calls for it, poor performing students would be attrited alot quicker and we'd spend less time and money training them.
I really don't think MPTS has a greater likelyhood of sending poor performing students along. If that were the case, when Primary instituted MPTS, we should have seen a rise in Advanced attrition. Instead, we observed a decline in Advanced attrition.