I think as well, that's a bug. I can't imagine any reason why not all coordinates could be transformed automatically by the ScalingFunctions-option. Nor that it is not supported in Graphics (but - surprise! - accepted). The underlying transformations are trivial.

Do you know, when 12.1 will arrive?

Thanks a lot, Henrik. This does what I want to do. I've stupidly overlooked the option ScalingFunctions so far.

Unfortunately, it works for the Plot-functions only, but not for Graphics. Strange enough, for Graphics it is accepted, marked red but ignored.

The following code draws a broken line with all four axis orientations. Once with Graphics as an Arrow and once with ListLinePlot as a Line. Everything else is identical.

You can see that ListLinePlot does everything right. (Maybe except for the AxesLabel, which are not placed at the correct position at the end of the axis).

Block[{graphs, i, pts, xticks, yticks},
 pts = {{0, 0}, {1.5, 0.25}, {2, 1}};
 xticks = 0.5*Range[4]; yticks = 0.25*Range[4];
 graphs = Table[{Null, Null}, 4]; i = 0;
 Do[i++;
  graphs[[i, 1]] = Graphics[Arrow[pts]
    , Axes -> True, AxesStyle -> Directive[Red, 12], 
    ScalingFunctions -> sfs
    , AxesLabel -> (Style[#, Red, Bold, 16] & /@ {"x", "y"})
    , Ticks -> {xticks, yticks}, GridLines -> {xticks, yticks}
    , PlotLabel -> 
     Style[Column[{"Graphics", 
        Row[{"ScalingFunctions\[Rule]", sfs // InputForm}]}, Center], 
      Blue]
    , ImageSize -> Medium];
  graphs[[i, 2]] = ListLinePlot[pts
    , Axes -> True, AxesStyle -> Directive[Red, 12], 
    ScalingFunctions -> sfs
    , AxesLabel -> (Style[#, Red, Bold, 16] & /@ {"x", "y"})
    , Ticks -> {xticks, yticks}, GridLines -> {xticks, yticks}
    , PlotLabel -> 
     Style[Column[{"ListLinePlot", 
        Row[{"ScalingFunctions\[Rule]", sfs // InputForm}]}, Center], 
      Blue]
    , ImageSize -> Medium]
  , {sfs, {{None, None}, {None, "Reverse"}, {"Reverse", 
     None}, {"Reverse", "Reverse"}}}
  ];
 Print[graphs]
 ]

@Rohit: Well, this are still standard axes. y is running from the bottom (-3) to top (0). You just changed the labeling of ticks, not the coordinate system.

You can achieve the same with the standard Ticks option.

Block[{pt, yTicks},
 pt = {2, -2}; yTicks = {#, -#} & /@ Range[-3, 0, 0.5];
 Graphics[{Circle[pt, 1],
   Arrow[{{0, 0}, pt}], Red, PointSize -> Large, Point[pt], 
   Inset[Style[pt, 12], pt, {0, 2.0}]}
  , Axes -> True, AxesOrigin -> {0, 0}, Ticks -> {Automatic, yTicks}]
 ]

No. This are standard axes. y is running from the bottom (-3) to top (0).

What I want is y=0 on top and y=3 on the bottom. I.e. the standard way how by example screen display points are addressed (origin at top left).