Why does Safari address bar stay highlighted after pressing enter?

Possible solution: After pressing "Enter", press "Esc". I found this to be the fastest way, as the fingers are not leaving the keyboard area.

I'm (trying, but defaulted to Firefox for this exact reason) using Vimium, and I just want to be able to interact with the google search page after I'm done. If I press "Esc" too fast, I am cancelling the request, effectively being left with an empty page. Sometimes I have to press "Esc" twice or three times.

For this specific issue I switched to Firefox. Problem is that the integration with the iCloud Passwords app is not native as it is on Safari, I have to manually create entries in my Passwords app for accounts I make on Firefox.

Just sharing my thoughts, as this is the only blocker to using Safari.

Hello maan_free,

In Safari > Settings > Tabs, try to change the tab layout from Separate to Compact (or vice versa), quit Safari and set the tab layout to its previous value.

Yup, do agree it's quite cumbersome. It is what it is.