Maintain links in XSL

I really don't understand what you wanna request.
In my opinion, Excel does not understand that the content is text or HTML. You can import csv into Excel You will see it. you have to click on the cell once for firs time, it will automatically convert to a link.

Another solution you can use module https://www.drupal.org/project/bootstrap_table it can download and open with excel (base on html)

In a spreadsheet I can link text. In my HTML I have the short word "Edit" that links to a very long absolute URL, and for usability reasons I want the same in my exported XLS.

According to the documentation PhpSpreadsheet has the capability to hyperlink cells, so I'm requesting that this module implement this for views fields that are linked.

you can make patch for it? It can find in XlsEncoder.php
There is a converter link for the image, I think you need to check the extension of the link and change cell format to html