> "Opening them from dired-mode already puts them into emacs, so"

This also works globally with #'find-file-at-point (which isn't bound to a hotkey by default, but should be: this is one of my most satisfying hotkeys. That function opens any filepath appearing as a string, in any context, in the working directory of that context—filepath strings in files, and filepath strings as outputs from shell commands, being the top two).

(It's like converting every file reference into a clickable URL—only, implicitly).