How to Set Cursor Style to Pointer for Links Without Hrefs

Action Steps: Using CSS and JavaScript

User Experience Focus

• JavaScript dynamics: Employ JavaScript to selectively style elements and provide an astute user experience.
• Code maintainability: Favor separate CSS classes over inline styles for ease of future edits and greater code readability.
• Interactive signals: Craft interactive elements to provide needed visual feedback using :hover states and cursor changes.

The Semantic and Accessibility Angle

• Semantic clarity: Ensure your HTML truly represents the nature of your content to support accessibility and usability.
• Behavioral separation: Distinguish and grasp the separation between structural (HTML), presentation (CSS), and behavioral (JavaScript) elements for clear, efficient code.
• Element targeting: Use JavaScript to target elements by their class or id when modifying cursor styles to avoid unwanted effects on other elements.

The Handy Alternatives and Tips

• Href substitute: If href is MIA, consider using href="" with return false; in your onclick event. It lists domain while impeding the default link behavior, and keeps good terms with SEO.
• CSS classes: Implement a reusable CSS .pointer class in your stylesheets to maintain reusability and consistency.
• The # nemesis: Avoid href="#" at all costs, to dodge unexpected jump scares!

Increasing Interactivity and Visual Attractiveness

• Hover collector: The :hover pseudo-class can juice up the visual feedback of your elements beyond changing the cursor — a visual treat for your users.
• Attribute selectors: Consider specifically targeting <a> tags with [onclick] if you are applying styles to those with JavaScript event handlers.
• CSS specificity: Be mindful of the potential for specificity wars, ensure that your styles get precedence.

Avoiding the Pitfalls

• CSS or JS: Leverage CSS for styling whenever feasible. It assists in maintaining performance and ensuring separation of concerns.
• Class reuse: Encourage CSS classes reuse to cut off redundancy and uphold maintainability.
• Accessible sailing: See to it that even the href-less links are readable and navigable especially for your screen reader users.

Deep Dive

• Further learning: Immerse yourself in resources discussing behavioral separation for a more robust understanding on crafting scalable websites.
• Peer insights: Review other answers and solutions for a comprehensive perspective on the issue at hand.
• Keep learning: The web is full of surprising turnarounds, so don't stop learning new tricks and techniques to improve your users' experience.