The complexity is unwarranted. The only thing that needs standardizing is how to hand over public keys (SSH format works fine), and what to sign to prove identity.

Everything else about managing which public keys are for what does not need to be decided in a standard. The users can choose whatever key management solution works best for them. What those links get at is a problem of key management. A single set of keys, where you send all of them to every server all the time, is a bad strategy.