I can see why you might like having the latest portion of your message appear at the bottom of the page. After all, that is the way transcriptions of conversations are usually presented.
However, I think it is customary e-mail syntax for the latest replies to appear at the top of the page. I think most people are used to this, and would have a hard time getting used to things being reversed. That is just my opinion.
I thank you are correct when you say that the e-mail replies could be handled in a much clearer and more elegant way.
For example, when we receive a reply to a message, I think it would be good to have each entry set apart by a name and time stamp. You could even have the body of the e-mail automatically set off by quotation marks. For example:
BERT replied (4/24/08, 5:57 p.m.)
"No; leave me alone! better yet, slide a pizza under the door."
RECEPTIONIST (4/24/08, 5:56 p.m.)
"Don't you want something to eat? You've been at that computer for days now -- you're wasting away! You're nothing but skin and bones!"
