If you curve the students after the test, you are applying subjective edits to the graded performance just so the distribution of grades matches the measure of your tests effectiveness. That's just hacking the metric.
Further, even if you believe that tests should differentiate mastery (not students), your test should have teased out the differences or given you enough confidence to provide As to everyone who mastered the material - which should be absolutely possible! There's no a priori reason that all students cannot absolutely get the same grade, except for the a priori assumption that grades are for differentiation of students themselves (this year's A means this is the best student of this year), vs indicating mastery (all students absolutely crushed this exam).
You can dock points for style, or unnecessary struggle, or whatever subjective metric you want, but fudging the grades based on vibes to fit a prior-assumed distribution is just kinda "test effectiveness laundering"