I’m not denying your underlying logic, but from an actual user perspective:
clicking an image
landing on text
Is bad design.
That's because you are used to the opposite, which is from an intelligent design standpoint incorrect.
No, It’s because an end user does and should expect that clicking on a thumbnail takes them to a larger version of image.
Any justification regarding technical backend, or intelligent design, doesn’t matter.
For example:
A typical image search takes you to a page displaying a grid of thumbnails with links under them.
When you click on the image, a larger image is presented.
When you click on the link, it takes you to the page where the image appears.
Imagine the opposite, if clicking the image took you to the link, and clicking the link took you to the image.
Any justification regarding technical backend, or intelligent design, doesn’t matter.
Proceeds to give a justification regarding technical backend or intelligent design.
should expect that clicking on a thumbnail takes them to a larger version of image.
You've missed something important here. Not all thumbnails are from image posts. What do you do with that? How do you identify between image post and link post?
The answer is simple: the expando button.
It shows exactly what type of post you are about to open.
(post is archived)