As of 1.2.13, all cliffs, overhangs, and floating islands landscape having only stone being visible below them. It is making the landscape look pretty ugly and does not mesh well with the surrounding Grass and terrain. I tested this bug on my Windows 10 computer running MC on v.1.2.13 and on my iPhone running MC on v.1.2.15
What I believe is happening is all decorative surface block that has a non-transparent block above it (which is blocking sunlight) will not let the decorative surface block spawn.
I included several pictures showing this new change but trust me, it looks a lot worse in person than in pictures. It affects all biomes except for the Mesa biome it seems.
Some seeds you can try to see this for yourself are: 1423683032 has the Ice Spike overhang at 280, 80, 270 | GODmedpups has a Birch Forest M overhang at -10, 88, 250 (Birch Trees are still bugged to being short in Birch Forest M but that a different bug report) | and lastly, 1421236222 has a Jungle overhang at 570, 70, 50.
The new change looks really bad that I am pretty sure this has to be an unintentional terrain generation and a bug/side-effect. If this is confirmed by Mojang to be an intended change, then I question their sanity and will voice my opinion on their feedback page So for now, I believe it is best to view this as a bug that needs to be patched.
Edit: Changed my tone to be less negative. Also, Tommo at Mojang saw my Reddit post about this change and he says it may be a bug: https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/8c83up/in_bedrock_edition_mojang_removed_grass_from/dxe5ebx
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@gaspoweredpick
That bug report you listed is for a change brought in 1.2.9. This new change is brought in after 1.2.13 so the two bug reports do not relate at all. In addition, Tommo at Mojang stated that this may be a bug here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Minecraft/comments/8c83up/in_bedrock_edition_mojang_removed_grass_from/dxe5ebx
But you may be onto something! If that Mesa change is intended, then the code to not generate Red Sand under Mesa overhangs may be what is causing all other biomes to not decorate properly under their overhangs.
As for the aesthetics, a lot of people, including me, really think this would look a lot better if the stone was replaced with Dirt, Course Dirt, Podzol, or even covered in a new Moss layer block which would look more like real life where grass and other greens can grow under decent sized overhangs and arches. Maybe even have Ice blocks under overhangs in cold biomes to create icy caves which would be really interesting or just put full snow blocks back again.
edit: Fixed some typos lol
@TelepathicGrunt
I do agree that it could look better by adding some moss or coarse dirt under the overhangs, and I also noticed that the change is actually a bug based on what the devs have said. The reason I said that it was "probably" intended is because I reported a bug for Java that shows grass generating in places with no light (MC-105679) and I thought the "bug" you've reported here was the fix for it (before the devs said it was a bug. btw I don't read the bedrock edition changelogs because I usually report bugs for Java). Another thing to note is that I didn't report the bug that mesa and ocean biomes don't generate stuff under overhangs, because it's such an unnoticeable detail, that the devs almost guaranteed won't fix because "world generation can get crazy", so I went with the fact that grass generating under overhangs is a bug instead because it is way more noticable and weird.
It's probably intended. Mesa biomes before and after 1.2.13 have had a layer of terracotta (clay) that stops under overhangs that are thick enough. In the seed 2007427078 and at the coordinates 1957 67 -384, you will see terracotta under the overhangs of a mesa replacing red sand. The mesa biomes and the new ocean biomes in Java also have the same feature. Plus IMO it looks way better than having stuff like grass or podzol generate in places with no light or trees.
Also, this relates to MCPE-30612