Yup, air resistance works with you on the way down, not against you, and it is courteous enough to start small and work itself up when you are on the way down.
I don't know how SpaceX is planning on handling that. Maybe the trajectory they put themselves on is going to be slow enough to survive reentry using just the main engine nozzles as make-shift heat shields?
Maybe they are going to push the gravity turn later into the flight so that the first stage doesn't participate in that as much?