Minecraft Uses OpenGL Compatibility Context Instead Of Core on MacOS

 Current Behavior:

MC reports OpenGL 2.1 via F3, as do several third-party modifications and does not allow GL 4.1 rendering behaviors.

Expected behavior:

MC reports OpenGL 4.1, newer rendering options are available.

My guess: There is a need to request the OpenGL core context, or it will default to the compatibility context, resulting in the GL 2.1 shown in F3 (RX 580 OpenGL Engine 2.1 ATI-2.11.20 [see attachments for image]).

Note that this appears to affect ALL current and past MC versions.

Devs/Mods - Please do not shoot this issue down by saying "it still works." A game being consistently updated and modernized in 2021 should NOT be forced to run on a rendering library from 2006, not to mention the huge loss to performance and limitations to 3rd party graphics mods like Optifine.  

As noted by Marty McFly, this issue appears to relate to MC-219170 as well as MC-101585,

MC-101585 was marked as ‘resolved’ and no solution was given, but appears to contain relevant information and suggests that this issue has been around since at least the 1.9 era.

edit 4/14/21 - clarity/word choice

edit 6/10/21 - Add related issues