Fire charges aren't consumed when igniting creepers using them in survival or adventure mode

Here's a code analysis of this issue along with a fix. 😉

Code Analysis:

The following is based on a decompiled version of Minecraft 1.19.3 Release Candidate 3 using Mojang mappings.

net.minecraft.world.entity.monster.Creeper.java

public class Creeper extends Monster implements PowerableMob {
   ...
   protected InteractionResult mobInteract(Player player, InteractionHand interactionHand) {
      ItemStack itemStack = player.getItemInHand(interactionHand);
      if (itemStack.is(ItemTags.CREEPER_IGNITERS)) {
         SoundEvent soundEvent = itemStack.is(Items.FIRE_CHARGE) ? SoundEvents.FIRECHARGE_USE : SoundEvents.FLINTANDSTEEL_USE;
         this.level.playSound(player, this.getX(), this.getY(), this.getZ(), soundEvent, this.getSoundSource(), 1.0f, this.random.nextFloat() * 0.4f + 0.8f);
         if (!this.level.isClientSide) {
            this.ignite();
            itemStack.hurtAndBreak(1, player, player2 -> player2.broadcastBreakEvent(interactionHand));
         }
         return InteractionResult.sidedSuccess(this.level.isClientSide);
      }
      return super.mobInteract(player, interactionHand);
   }
   ...

If we look at the above class, we can see that when an item that's included within the CREEPER_IGNITERS item tag is used on a creeper, the hurtAndBreak() method is called. This method is specifically and exclusively designed to decrease the durability of an item that can be damaged. Because fire charges don't have durability, this results in them not being consumed when using them on creepers, therefore resulting in this problem occurring.

Fix:

Simply adding some lines of code to call a certain method based on what item players use to interact with creepers, will resolve this problem. When players interact with creepers using flint and steel, the hurtAndBreak() method should be called, and on the other hand, when players interact with creepers using fire charges, the shrink() method should be called.

Wouldn't it make more sense to just modify hurtAndBreak to just consume the item/call shrink if it has no durability? I recon it won't create any other issues, but might prevent future ones.