I think in situations where you want to use a "button" (in the functionality sense) that looks like a link, you probably won't need to disable it—the two styles don't really mix for the most part, though I'm sure I've seen it done somewhere.

I know what e.preventDefault() is and when and how to use it, just simply didn't think of it when trying to find solutions. It was promptly pointed out in the G+ comments, but there are still major drawbacks to that approach.

Either way, it was well past the asking Bootstrap to add this phase by the time I wrote the post.