The progress of the item coming out of the suspicious sand block when you start brushing is not saved when you exit and rejoin the world.
How to reproduce
Find a naturally occurring suspicious sand block, or place one with the following command
setblock ~ ~ ~ minecraft:suspicious_sand{loot_table:"minecraft:archaeology/desert_well"}Go in survival mode and start brushing the suspicious sand
When the item is halfway, stop brushing and exit the world
Rejoin the world and notice that the item is no longer sticking out. Expected behavior would be that the item is initially sticking out, but after a few seconds disappears, just as if the world hadn't been reloaded.
Code analysis
This is because the hit_direction field in the SuspiciousSandBlockEntity is not saved, however it is loaded making me believe that this is a bug.
If it is intentional, why attempt to load the field?