It's a way to do hyperlinked text when true hyperlinked text is not available. Links in mid-text are really annoying, so we replace them with a 'footnote'. I ag

It's a way to do hyperlinked text when true hyperlinked text is not available. Links in mid-text are really annoying, so we replace them with a 'footnote'. I agree it's a little bizarre when it's a single line of text with a single link, but it's just the same pattern.