I think the specific examples for simple emails or phone numbers work great as it is likely actually helpful to see the email address or phone number you are clicking. However, when you are dealing with longer URLs, that is when having the option for an alias or to render the link as a button would be very helpful and reduce clutter.
A simple example I can offer is creating Google Maps links from location fields (to show location on Google Maps or on Street View):
I don’t see a good reason for the user to see the long URL. In fact it would likely be much easier for them to understand the link if there was a descriptive text/button (“Map View” or “Street View”). I have at least 10 other situations where we are trying to pass a user to another system through URL parameters and while it works, it is definitely not user friendly.
I think it would be difficult to do this for hyperlink input fields (i.e. where a user inputs the URL). However, I’m hoping this is relatively easy to do for formula fields where the Field Type is set to URL:
