I’ve run into this, but it is coming from the UX designer for the product. There is an organization component library, with a corresponding figma library. They insist on using the button component instead of the link component.
Most react component libraries correctly return <a> tags for <Button /> components with an href property, while still styling them as buttons. This preserves the expected link behaviors while satisfying the design obsession with buttons over traditional links.
Specifying button-looking elements for regular navigation actions is definitely wrong, and nearly all UX and UI designers will understand that.
If it triggers an action with consequences, or even navigates users to a single-purpose page where they can select options or confirm the action-- e.g. 'cancel subscription now' or similar-- then it probably should look like a button.
