When the gamerule disablemobgriefing is turned on creeper explosions will still destroy dropped items. If griefing is turned off items probably shouldn't be able to be destroyed by mobs. Not sure if this is a bug or an oversight problem.
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gaspoweredpick
This is definitely intentional: the items will despawn regardless (if not picked up).
j_p_smith
Duplicate of MC-1673.
violine1101
Thank you for your report!
We're tracking this issue in MC-1673, so this ticket is being resolved and linked as a duplicate.
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Just like how a creeper can damage you and kill other mobs when it explodes (with mobgriefing false) it can destroy items (along with boats, item frames, armor stands, minecarts, ect) since they are all classified as entities. It would definitely make sense to add this in since if you have already disabled mob griefing some things should be specifically protected.