Laravel download response is not forcing file download - php

Question

this question is related to: Laravel - Force download with response()->download($fileLocation) not working
The problem is, that I use a axios GET request (as mentioned in that thread) to initiate the browser download but it is not working. My Controller works perfectly and it returns the file correctly as I can see in the browser console:
The request:
The response
The image
But the browser is not starting any download.
I am using Vue/Nuxt on client-side and the axios request is called like this:
download ({
dispatch,
commit,
rootState,
rootGetters
}) {
this.$axios.get('api/download',
{
params: {
filenames: rootGetters['files/getDownloadFilenames'],
mode: rootState.config.mode
}
}).then((response) => {
console.log(response)
}).catch((error) => {
console.log(error)
})
}
And the controller #laravel is called with the "getFileDownload" function:
<?php
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Log;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Storage;
class DownloadController extends Controller
{
public function getFileDownload(Request $request) {
$filenames = $request->input('filenames');
$mode = $request->input('mode');
$filePaths = [];
foreach($filenames as $filename) {
if ($mode == 'clean') {
array_push($filePaths, $request->user()->getName() . config('filesystems.transfer_out_clean') . '/' . $filename);
return response()->download($filePaths[0]);
}
}
}
}
The reason I am using an array here is that later on I want to return a ZIP file containing multiple files, but as you can see I am just using the first path to return a single file for testing purposes.
So my question is: Why isn't this request starting a download of that image file on the client even if I use a GET request?
Any help much appreciated!