You can already do the first item. Click on the link and a little text box with the title of the link and the web address pops up. Drag it to the tab bar and release it where you want to open it. You can even select where on the tab bar you want to open it.
Currently I close tabs by pressing the middle mouse button on the tab in the tab bar and the link closes. Are you wanting to do this with the left-click or do you have another command that you’d like to map to this function?