Board Thread:Wiki General Discussion/@comment-5645428-20170112154907/@comment-25651575-20170114224259

About the links.

Not too long ago, the formatting buttons on forums were restored due to their removal being a violation of the terms of use - i.e. intentionally removing user interface/functionality. I haven't heard anyone object to that, despite (as Hackey mentioned) the features still being there, only accessible through source mode or keyboard shortcuts. If I recall correctly, the reason for their removal was their overuse on forums.

Switching links to external only feels similar: restricting functionality? I'd argue that it is. I don't know about you, but typing the page name I want to link to is about ten times faster than opening a new tab, finding the page and copy-pasting the URL. Not to mention Special:WhatLinksHere exists, which includes a namespace parameter, allowing you to narrow down to main-page links only. In fact, clicking anything in Special:MostLinkedPages leads you directly to the WhatLinksHere page.

I personally don't believe restricting a feature is worth the small gain from MostLinkedPages, and will continue to doubt unless convinced that MostLinkedPages is some kind of sacred ground.