I think I have an idea what is going on! I don't use my Users\<username>\ folder for my media (music and video). I recently changed where that was going by moving the "Media" folder to a different location. That worked fine but it was considered a "new" folder so took the default columns. If I play with those columns - remove "Type" and move "Size" before "Date Modified", it makes these changes to my Downloads folder. If I fix that, they often go funny!
It's Microsoft trying to dictate how I look at things, plain and simple. From the start with Win 3.1, Microsoft has been trying to take control from users. They think we're idiots and don't know how to do things!
That change to "Media" also seemed to be causing my OLD (7 versions back) of CyberLink (came with the PC) to create empty an empty "Media" folder in the old location but I think I may have gotten around that -- still checking. When I moved the folder, the system pointers updated fine but it seems like Cyberlink very low down in the programming didn't update until I changed to default and then changed to the new location (without Cyberlink running). It doesn't make a lot of sense but it seems to be working.
BTW - one of the first things I do whenever I get a new PC/Laptop is "unhide" ALL folders I can. It's better up front before you install much. The more there, the LONGER it takes!
I wish I could DEFINE easily what I want as default columns and their order.