HYPERLINK - bug #81718?

[Bob Mesibov <mesibov southcom com au>]

I use Gnumeric 1.10.8

If I want to put a hyperlink into a Gnumeric cell, I have to use the Add Hyperlink dialogue. Using the 
HYPERLINK function does not add a hyperlink to a cell.

In bug discussion 81718

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=81718

developer Andreas does not see a use case for HYPERLINK:

"I have yet to see any use case for HYPERLINK that would not be better solved by adding a huperlink." 
(comment 19)

Here is one: I have a Gnumeric spreadsheet listing 2000 music tracks and their details, one track per 
spreadsheet row. I would like one cell in each row to link to the track, so that clicking on the link in that 
cell will open the track from my hard drive using the default audio player for that file type.

It would take many hours to Add Hyperlink 2000 times in this spreadsheet. It would be more efficient to add a 
column containing the filepath addresses of the 2000 tracks, then use HYPERLINK ({cell address for 
filepath},"link text") in the first cell and copy down 1999 times, which would take only a few seconds.

I can't do this in Gnumeric, but I can in Open/Libre Office and Excel, which means I have to change 
spreadsheet programs to get this use. Maybe Gnumeric should just drop the HYPERLINK function?