Replacing link tag A with SPAN, pros and cons?

Question

HTML

on some site I came across links made through SPAN, does this somehow affect SEO?
I would like to know the opinion of connoisseurs about the pros and cons of this technique . I
found instructions on the net how to replace A with SPAN, maybe someone will come in handy

<h1>Замена тега ссылок А на SPAN</h1>
<br>
<p><span onclick="InWin('http://ссылка.ru/')">Это ссылка</span>

span:visited{ text-decoration:none; color:#293d6b; }
  span:hover{ text-decoration:underline; color:#293d6b; }
  span {color:#293d6b; cursor: pointer; }

<script type="text/javascript">
function InWin(a){
if (a.href) a=a.href;
jtop=window.open(a,'Пример',
  'height=768,width=1024,location=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,menubar=no,status=yes,scrollbars=1,resizable=yes');
jtop.focus();
jtop.name='example';
return false;
}
</script>

Answer 1

Yes, the code is extremely simple, but ... why the hell? So you can make a div a link, and whatever. But why force the client to load a script for this?
And if a person disables JS in the browser settings?) A very strange (read, unnecessary) hook

Answer 2

This is done in order to hide affiliate links from search engines and people, many people use it, and so do I.