[varrock]

I'd argue the link is the most influential and historic element of the web. Its behavior should rightfully be preserved.

[GloomyBoots]

The link and the URL are what made hypertext hyper. They turned words in a document into portals to other documents.

But that web isn’t the one we’re dealing with anymore. We’ve moved from documents to applications. Like tabindex, I’m sure browsers or frameworks will gradually find ways to make any element behave link-like in every way. Which isn’t really a bad thing, it’s just development of the core idea of the web.

[KRAKRISMOTT]

It also made things slow. Modern SPA links have pre loading optimizations baked in. It's quite important especially if your users are on mobile.

[quickthrower2]

It is the H in HTML and HTTP!