This was my initial reaction as well. However, I then realised that being able to see where the link leads to (assuming it's not a redirect) may very well be of more importance.
My suggestion on posts with as much downvotes as this one would be to remove the <a>-tags which, in addition to introducing the grey colour would also prevent unintended clicks and bring attention to the destination of the link as it requires copy-paste.
My suggestion on posts with as much downvotes as this one would be to remove the <a>-tags which, in addition to introducing the grey colour would also prevent unintended clicks and bring attention to the destination of the link as it requires copy-paste.