I'm just your average (maybe below) bog aviator and the way I have always conceptualised "lift" is as follows. I think of a wing as a propellor blade. The blade produces lift (thrust) to pull/push the aircraft forward. How does the lift manifest itself? By throwing a quanity of air to the back. No air being thrown to the back, no lift (thrust). This view of lift may stem from my helicopter background. No downwash from the rotor blades, no lift.
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I'm aware that there are some books around, like Stick and Rudder, that say lift is entirely down to downwash and nothing to do with pressure distribution.
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As I infer above I think of lift as being the result of a mass of air being thrown at the ground, and the means by which that is brought about is by the pressure distribution about the wing. So the two go hand in hand, can't have downwash without the pressure distribution. Of course with an airfoil at its zero lift angle of attack you still have pressure distribution but no downwash.
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Also, one can turn the trailing edge of a wing up and still produce lift, albeit not very efficiently, but without downwash
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My understanding is that reflex in the trailing edge is introduced to control the pitching moment of the airfoil. You still need downwash to get lift (lift, as in to keep a body flying).