When doing cp -vl --remove-destination regularfile existing_symlink_to_regularfile, cp should report that it removes the destination file (because it needs to make space in order to create the new hardlink).
$ rm -f symlink; ln -s README.md symlink; ls -1i README.md symlink; cp -vl --remove-destination README.md symlink; ls -1i README.md symlink
20092600 README.md
20074037 symlink
removed 'symlink'
'README.md' -> 'symlink'
20092600 README.md
20092600 symlink
$ rm -f symlink; ln -s README.md symlink; ls -1i README.md symlink; cargo run -q cp -vl --remove-destination README.md symlink; ls -1i README.md symlink
20092600 README.md
20074037 symlink
'README.md' -> 'symlink'
20092600 README.md
20092600 symlink
Found while reading #6496, but only remotely related.