ARTIFICIAL downward pressure ? Why do you say artificial ?
A large short interest in a stock is usually a major tell that there is something wrong in the company books. Short sellers read balance sheets and 10Qs, something that most buy-and-hold or long-term investors do less of.
Short sellers put a floor under stock prices. As an example look at the DOW then lok at the Hang Seng. Which index is down more - bearing in ming that the US allows short selling and the Chinese do not. Would you rather your market down 40 or down 70 % ?
Now then, the stock market collapse is not due to naked short selling BUT such selling has allowed for pools of short sellers to single out and drive out of business companies that would normally have withstood declines. That is not investing, that is simply bludgeoning companies out of business on a whim. Bankruptcy due to failed business models is how failed firms are supposed to go out of business. Naked shorting fails firms that rely upon confidence, not just product sales, i.e. banks and financial firms. It should be outlawed.
Vince