You are right that it's a tracker that *should* automatically redirect to the intended website. I found a way to determine what the intended URL is...
I entered the is-tracking-xxx url into this website:
https://www.phishcheck.me/
and one of the tabs that comes up in the report is "Redirects" - there you can find the address you were meant to land on!
Doesn't solve the problem at the source, but at least there's a work-around when you already know the destination address is safe.