Back in the day I requested chrome feature "copy text" in addition to "copy link" on <a> context menu. Now I tried it it's no longer there.

It's not? Just checked a Chrome instance I had handy, it has all three options in the context menu - "Copy", "Copy link address" and "Copy link to highlight". First one copies text in between <a> ... </a>, second one copies the href attribute, and third one copies the link to page you're on with that weird URL framgment-based arbitrary text anchor/highlight scheme.

All three work on Google search results for me.

Maybe weird behavior on my end? Or perhaps you need to select part of <a>'s content to trigger it?