That one I can almost agree with the reasoning for. The first item is selected by default but also by default you have to intentionally trigger a keyboard navigation for it to go into that mode since most don't intend to do that when hitting enter on a freshly loaded directory. As evidence of this behavior instead of hitting a directional key to change the selection whacking space should activate the highlight on the first item and then another navigation action is needed to actually do anything.
I think it'd be more convenient (for me as a keyboard centric user at least) if it were done differently but I don't think it's actually a bug as much as an intentional decision at the cost of keyboard user. This is unlike the Defender issue where it's of no purpose to be significantly slower than it needed to be.
Wanted to chime in with this. Agreed, it's not a bug. Just a UX decision that was made to prevent people from hitting Enter over and over and constantly launching/navigating stuff.
I often accidentally rename files in macOS Finder (hitting Enter activates rename).
I think it'd be more convenient (for me as a keyboard centric user at least) if it were done differently but I don't think it's actually a bug as much as an intentional decision at the cost of keyboard user. This is unlike the Defender issue where it's of no purpose to be significantly slower than it needed to be.