[jb92563]

I am new to my 2001 'S' 6 speed and after 3 days of driving I have to concur that downshifting to 1st is rather pointless as its done under 10mph and you are virtually stopped
already, however you must for all the other gears because its fun, sounds good and reminds other drivers that you are driving a sexy SPORT car with a racing heritage not an ecobox lunch bucket with wheels.

Downshifting is fun, saves the brakes and sounds cool. I have driven my MT Jeep wrangler for over 60,000 miles and still have good brake pads left.
I ussually only touch the brakes lightly to indicate to traffic behind that I'm braking, and coming to a complete stop on a slope.

The bliping of throttle to sync the engine/gearbox for a smooth transition in a downshift is an art and will take some time and practice to get it perfect as you learn your engines response time and hear its tone/rpm for the clutch timing but its also part of the fun.

Hearing your engines tone is the best way to time it, in my experience, as the Tach lags and will take your eyes off more important things. Shift indicators are worse than useless and to be ignored (in the jeep at least)

I would never shift to neutral while moving since you don't have control of your car anymore, ie you can not apply power to manuever or downshift or reduce throttle to brake, plus the gearbox and engine speeds get way out of sync and it will take more time to spool up when you want to go again.
Just downshift or keep the clutch depressed so the syncro can do its work.