Anvils will sometimes hit the edge of a block and break instead of being placed.

Very damaged anvils can disappear from fall damage, so this might be related.

Indeed, but these anvils don't disappear, but simply "pop"/break, as you'd usually see with sand or gravel falling on a torch.

Is this still a concern in the current Minecraft version? If so, please update the affected versions in order to best aid Mojang ensuring bugs are still valid in the latest releases/pre-releases.

No answer on querry, assuming fixed.