The bug
When a Crafter attempts to output multiple items at ones in a Composter, only one item will be composted and the rest will be dropped as item entities inside the Composter.
In 21w45a, the Composter composted all items as one, but since 21w46a, it composts only one item and drops the rest. This is probably related to MC-265950 (which properly fixed a similar issue, but only on Chiseled Bookshelves)
To reproduce:
Place a crafter facing downward directly above a composter
In the crafter, put a stack of cocoa in the top middle slot and two stacks of wheat in the two top corners (this will output 8 cookies)
Place a button on the crafter and press it
Open your debug screen (F3)
Look at the "level" state of the composter
❌ See if the composter went up more than one level (normally 8 cookies would raise it a few levels)Switch to spectator mode (F3 + N)
❌ See if there are cookies inside the composter
What I expected to happen was...:
The composter composting all the cookies at once
What actually happened was...:
The composter could only compost one cookie and dropped the rest as item entities.
This still happens in 1.21.4, however one cookie is used, and the other 7 get left inside the composter (as in dropped in). Not sure if that was the behavior on other versions, but it seems to be on 1.21.4