Hi @ngcnelson,
Nice catch. I think you're right that it should work for external links as well. I think we missed that because we only use it ourselves to change channels on /goto. It still needs to go through React Router for those internal links, but it can use window.open for anything external.
If you wouldn't mind filing an issue on GitHub, we can prioritize it or see if any community members are interested in working on it.