Ok, there are couple things one you have not made it clear if the icon exists at page top or not or that you have actually downloaded a file and seen that it is there and shows all the same stuff as it did except that it is hidden when not in use.......

Have you gone into the 3 Bar Menu and then Customize then mouse to the download icon and place it the area you want the download icon to be or move it to where you want it to be. Once placed if was not there click on it and untick Hide.

How about looking at these 2 URL's if you have no idea about Customize and watch the video: https://www.howtogeek.com/333110/how-to-customize-firefox-quantum-and-remove-the-white-space-around-the-title-bar/ and The name is not descriptive enough : https://www.howtogeek.com/332449/whats-new-in-firefox-quantum/

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

i know how to customize, Give me a little more credit than that. i have added some images below as you obviously haven't heard of the download manager (here is the link https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/s3download-statusbar/).

So my problem with current firefox's download manager (referencing 'what you have currently.png') is how do i know what is going on? i had a download going and you can barely tell from the icon. The 'what i'm waiting on' files are what i would like to see implemented (using waterfox to enable the above add-on) the first image has a download going and you can see on the bottom right the overall time estimation with a download speed and a percent done.

The second has some advanced options to check the file. Pause and restart ect ect.

And the last is after you clear all the failed/finished files it auto-hides itself. to keep the overall clean look.

now i am not looking at a forced implementation but an option to do so. I chose Firefox as my default browser for the customisation.

woops i was meant to tag this in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1187573

looks like you guys are working on it somewhat. That response sounded like 'live without it or downgrade' seems to entail that the mozilla team is taking a big change in philosophy from open and free-spirited, to a more microsoft windows 10 'upgrade or piss off'

if you cannot convince me with your response i'll just move to either Waterfox or Chrome (which has the customisation that it lacked when i decided Firefox to be my default browser)