How do I unset a link?

I want to programmatically decide whether to render a link or not. This should apply to all links e.g anchor tags (no wysywigs) Not only menu links.

I tried using hook_link_alter.

/**
 * Implements hook_link_alter().
 */
function mymodule_link_alter(&$variables) {
  $my_logic = TRUE;
  if ($my_logic) {
    // Any way to not render the link?
    // I tried:
    // $variables = []; and unsetting keys with no luck
    // $variables['options']['#access'] = FALSE; With no luck.
    // I guess i could set a flag here and somewhere else process it, but where?
  }
}

I can alter the structure, but I don't see any way to unset the element. What I want is basically to not render the element if $my_logic.

I also tried to use a service with the path_processor_outbound tag, but I have the same problem. I can "access" all generated links but can just alter / modify the output of processOutbound() but not to not process.

I think I can´t use a custom access check because i don´t want the url´s to be inaccessible if directly requested and I rather don´t want to do the check in a template

I couldn't find a way to prevent the link from rendering, but I did find a couple of ways of hiding it, which was good enough in my use case.

• Add a 'hidden' class to the link (along with CSS to display:none it)
• Set the link text to an empty string.

  $item['options']['attributes']['class'][] = 'hidden';
  $item['text'] = "";

If your goal is just to tidy up a menu/hide a link rather than prevent access to the destination page then this might help.