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What would you suggest the browser did? All it’s does is sends the correct origin - as it would be - downloads.asus.badsite(.)com

Where did the browser go wrong, here? They followed all security practices. The browser isn't what is running the payload.

Unless, you're suggesting that nobody should be able to download programs, unless blessed by some large company?

The browser is allowing remote code to talk with 127.0.0.1

Right... And that's only blocked in the host asks for it via CORS, or Same-Origin policies. Because otherwise you break any combination of apps. It's up to the server on the localhost not to blindly trust. And has been since the beginning.

Might have been there since the beginning, but doesn't make it less surprising or bad. That's a _ridiculously_ bad thing to allow. Any website to talk with just about ANY port on your local machine. Incredible.

Because the browser tells the backend exactly where the request came from, and the backend agrees to allow requests from there.