Yeah, I agree it's not ideal, though note that basic unix commands have trouble with arguments staring with dashes:

$ cd -links-/
-bash: cd: -l: invalid option
cd: usage: cd [-L|-P] [dir]

If you're working with a file on a filesystem, the time honored workaround is to prefix with ./

$ cd ./-links-/
$

Anyway, it doesn't seem like anyone is offering to write up a patch to enable such an alternative parsing strategy, perhaps Eric's "=" workaround should be documented prominently somewhere?