> None of our SPAs use <a> elements for clickable navigation. In fact, most of them attach a click listener to the root element, then let the individual clicks

> None of our SPAs use <a> elements for clickable navigation. In fact, most of them attach a click listener to the root element, then let the individual clicks bubble up to there. We use data parameters on the individual elements, and if the click handler sees one of those, then it activates the history state/navigation. This breaks a lot of navigation features though, right? For example, middle click or control click to open in a new tab, hovering to see where the link will take you, right clicking to save, copy, or share a link, etc. Why not just have them be anchor elements with hrefs that refer to the URL that you'll be using the history state with? You can still listen to the click events and perform the required history updates and navigation when that occurs, but if the user interacts with that link outside of just clicking it, it'll behave as they expect. Depending on how your navigation works, this could well be less work overall - this has certainly been my experience with similar projects.