Killing creatures by reducing their toughness to or below 0 (giving them -X/-X, in other words) is a deeply black mechanic
This justification from @TheZachkAttack on X makes decent sense: his punches continue to gain power as long as he carries the momentum, but once he runs out of momentum (land drops) he starts to stumble and ends up weaker because of the overfocus on power. In other words, land drops are indicating adrenaline and momentum, and bouncing lands back is a sort of cooldown or downside to leaning into aggression
Recursive 2/1s Magic design is littered with recursive 2/1s, usually 1-drops, that return themselves to play for a nominal fee plus a small prerequisite (typically another creature dying)
Conversely, if you hit your opponents creature with a type it resists, it takes 30 less damage
Darkness type Pokmon cards have a resistance to Psychic types and were weak to Fighting, but this was switched to Grass during that same Sword and Shield rebalance
Wrath of God 52 Cards It was hard to play a creature deck in early competitive Magic
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