The "bug"
Before 1.2, creepers would walk to the side of the player as they started to hiss.
Considering other changes to mob AI in 1.2, the fact that they strafed in the first place was without a doubt a bug and as such this ticket is invalid.
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Comments 16
Pretty sure the old behaviour was a bug now - animals did the same things when the player was holding their wanted food.
It's pretty hard to say if it's intentional, however I don't think it was due to farm animals. Creeper strafing predates farm animals even following you with food in the first place, it was its own thing. The farm animal situation seems separate, or at least perhaps it was reusing creeper code. There's no way to tell for sure..
This does of course affect the latest version, 21w11a, if it really is is an ancient forgotten bug. Here's a video of creeper strafing in a version of Beta before farm animals followed you.
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Even if it WAS a bug, I'd like to have it back; it makes it seem the Creeper's trying to flank you, & also it helps it not just walk into your sword repeatedly, making it a little more challenging to kill it (smarter behavior).
Might be intended that they don't walk while exploding as MCPE-29454 has been fixed.