In modern macOS (Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia), Safari’s controls are deep in the settings. Under the "Websites" tab, users can granularly control which sites are allowed to open windows. If a site tries to bypass this, Safari now greys out the address bar and asks, "Did you mean to open this?" This creates a friction layer that stops the "click-bait" ambush.
In the modern Mac era, the "pop-up" has shape-shifted into two new forms: pop up blocker apple mac