Well, window.open() obviously has the same problem, with the same solution being proposed: the caller of window.open opts in to not allow the thing being opened

Well, window.open() obviously has the same problem, with the same solution being proposed: the caller of window.open opts in to not allow the thing being opened to interact with it. We could have different default behaviors for the two cases, of course: opt-in for links and opt-out for window.open. But I still suspect that even just the link case is not as uncommon as one might wish. Happy to see data proving me wrong, though!