Why gift link?

These keys are fine and I always use steam keys instead of gift links. Also there were a couple of discussions from people using gift links and getting their humble account suspended in the past.

well, that is for giving the product to another HB account (it would appear in your humble bundle key page)
but the risk for flagging your account and getting banned is not worth it

Thanks everybody. I haven't used humble bundle in a loooong time and wanted to make sure that they were not somehow account binding keys before redemption.

I also have this question. Before, there was some value in telling the SG winner: "you cannot tell me that I used the key. The key was never revealed to anyone but you."

Now, it seems HB has a new policy: "Please give a key away to your friends, and then we will suspend your acct for doing it."

In the past, HB gift links transferred support status to the recipient, making them a superior option to simply providing keys directly. Nowadays, following HB going batshit crazy [and just a reminder, that did in fact start a bit before the IGN acquisition, meaning that even though IGN can be blamed for marketing fails over recent years, the weirdly steep decline in support (and Humble had FANTASTIC support in early years) is primarily on Humble themself], it seems as though the only valid option in most cases is to just reveal keys directly, regardless of intended usage (see euro's comment above).