I installed Drupal 8.3.5, no extra plugins or themes. I have added in the "base page" (structure/type) a field (file_in) to upload files.
If I add a new page (node/add/page) and also load a file in file_in (file2.txt), the new page displays me the link to the file.
Then I add a new field called file_ext as entity reference (file type). If I add a new page (node/add/page) and put in file_ext a reference to the file2.txt, I see the new page, but with only the label name of the file, not its link.
File module is enabled, version Drupal 8.3.5 (new and clean).