Digging even further back, it turns out that IFDOWN is in itself a workaround for an equal issue dating back to ~2012. As such, the core of the issue lies with how initramfs network setup overrides netplan. Adding that package.
Given the very limited setup /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf allows (including the DHCP default mentioned in the description), there is a case to be made for allowing admins to rely on the full config rather than initramfs for their network setup.
Digging even further back, it turns out that IFDOWN is in itself a workaround for an equal issue dating back to ~2012. As such, the core of the issue lies with how initramfs network setup overrides netplan. Adding that package.
Given the very limited setup /etc/initramfs- tools/initramfs .conf allows (including the DHCP default mentioned in the description), there is a case to be made for allowing admins to rely on the full config rather than initramfs for their network setup.