I am a long time Firefox User and have been frustrated with Brave (and Chrome) by not being able to open Bookmarks in a new tab by default, and automatically change the focus to the new Tab. I have found a workaround for Mac users that I thought might help some people.
Install BetterTouchTool. It is a utility for Mac (no, I have no affiliation with the developer) that allows different commands to be assiged to Triggers.
As an example, I configured the Single Finger Left Tap on my Touchpad to trigger Command-Shift-Left Click (which is how you open a bookmark or link in a new Tab in the foreground). Now, whenever I tap a bookmark or a link with a single finger, the bookmark (or link) opens in a new Tab in the foreground. This is not perfect (I prefer to Click the Touchpad, not tap it).
I also configured Two Finger Click to trigger Command-Click (which is the command to open a bookmark or link in a new Tab in the background.
It is fairly intuitive to use. I hope this helps some people. I’m allergic to Windows and do not know if a similar utility exists.