The download button is a step backwards. First, I had to search (cmd-f) to find it. There's plenty of room under "stats & graph" for a more distinct button. Secondly, the tab it brings you to makes it look like there's nothing to download. Look at:
I'm happy they obscured it. I always thought it was weird that it was so prominent. For most coders, using github to code (not visitors or downloaders), this big download button was visual cruft.
If your primary goal is to make downloading a zipped copy of your application easy, then sending your visitors/downloaders to a GitHub project page is probably not the best solution.
The link placement is still a step backwards when there are actual files uploaded, e.g. binary builds. And I would argue that the new ZIP button doesn't make it easier for newcomers to find those ZIP builds. I wish there was a way to make downloads really obvious for those projects that rely on them, this is still something I miss from Google Code.
The download button is a step backwards. First, I had to search (cmd-f) to find it. There's plenty of room under "stats & graph" for a more distinct button. Secondly, the tab it brings you to makes it look like there's nothing to download. Look at:
https://github.com/mongodb/mongo/downloads
The text makes it seem like an error almost..then I saw the buttons.