Anecdotally, my short answer to this is 'no'. At least a Downloads folder has a loosely defined purpose. I have often gone back to try and find something I downloaded that's no longer available (or too big to download again), and it's tricky at best to find something already.

Now, imagine how many files are being shifted around on a regular basis. Temp files, cached downloads, automatic installs of software updates, all sorts of crap your IT department may remotely put on your work laptop, etc. Sorting by date isn't all that useful. At least with folders, we have an 'enforced' blast radius if random junk shows up; my temp files stay in my temp folders, install files stay where they should, system files stay with my OS, etc.

And don't get me started on how things can end up in odd places on mobile devices OSs.