I'm particularly fond of the latter approach. There's some joy in applying hints that can be optionally read and only provide clarity. It's a great writing challenge.

I did sweat localization with this approach. We use a workflow to ensure some peer review but it's an added challenge. Seemingly all good.

it's true, but these are more fragile than simply having clear link text, especially over time as a site is maintained

For a more up-to-date version, see WCAG 2.2:

https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG22/Understanding/link-purpose-in-...

Thanks, I updated the links.

In a similar vain to the second link, I previously wrote about using css to truncate git hashes so that search functionality continues to work: https://www.quaxio.com/truncating_hashes.html