"However, at night, drowned swim to the surface and chase players as well as baby turtles, even outside the water, like regular zombies." – Minecraft Wiki
Drowned are intended to have the ability to emerge from the water specifically at night. This does not work consistently in the current version (1.17.1), in 1.16.5, or in 1.15.2.
Curiously, this remains inconsistent. When testing on Superflat worlds in all three versions, the Drowned never emerge. In version 1.15.2 on Default world generation, the Drowned did emerge and follow the player.
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Please take into consideration that the Minecraft Wiki is not a valid source when declaring that something "Works As Intended".
Cannot confirm, in 1.19.3 Drowned do emerge from the water at night as intended.
HOWEVER, their AI can be very finicky and buggy with it, so perhaps this is what the bug OP saw represents, or an entirely different bug
Duplicates MC-132739
just saying they aren't going to fix 1.15.2 and 1.16.5