Every major search engines I tried (Google, Bing, DDG, Yandex) once you search images, you can open a image in a new tab or a webpage containing that image directly. I would propose that Kagi have same ability.
Kagi search results already are able to open a website in a new tab on other type of searches (web, video, podcast, etc). Feature is only missing in image search. Currently you can do so only after interacting with image which creates a lot on needless clicks.
Suggested feature would not affect existing workflow/experience but rather enhance it.
When researching something, you would open multiple links in succession directly from search results in a background tabs which is possible in Kagi on every type of search results except image results.
I would suggest that on Kagi image search website URL is selectable and separate link. That would allow user to highlight or click on the URL and open it in new tab without clicking on the image. That would allow opening multiple webpages quickly in succession so you can go back to them to search further.
Clicking in the image would be unaffected. Right clicking in image and opening image in full resolution would be unaffected.