i personally think it's a terrible default. a normal link i can easily choose to open here, in a new tab, or in a new window. target="_blank" removes that choice, and forces me to open it how the site dev wishes
I've always seen it as a dark pattern to keep users on the site (like bing uses it^[see also old reddit doing the user friendly thing of same tab, new reddit opening a new tab]). it was really nice to see lemmy not doing that. it's weird to see people calling it sensible
yeah, that's a preference not a default. feel free to configure your preferences howsoever you prefer. if it's a configurable preference it's not a dark pattern, it's just an option
this is a userscript that i'm using, and has the option to enable open all links in new tab. i also found this whilst searching for it just now, but i haven't used it
but what device are you using that doesn't have a mouse, trackpad, or ctrl key?