Please do not "fix" this bug by removing the item entity's insert-on-collision mechanism. This property is important for many contraptions which rely on the entity inserting itself into the hopper. For example, some wireless redstone machines may break: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLynwXDnETI&t=0s. Other machines include constant time hopper lines, which rely on the hopper ticking in the entity phase to order hopper operations.
Overloaded comparators (signal exceeding 15) being removed is a shame, it is a very useful feature with many applications (such as with encoded storages). That being said, better performance would be appreciated.
My main concern is how this change may effect redstone machines which make use of technical properties of comparators. For example, would this change remove instant comparator lines? They are an essential part of many encoded machines. Would this change effect comparator updates? They are essential for many storage devices.
Please try to keep the comparator's feature set the same throughout this change whenever possible. The comparator is a fundamentally important component.
This also happens in 1.17.1. I've also tested my proposed fix. Code: https://github.com/Andrews54757/tweakfork/commit/d4d58906e738151823d20368d76d805553027fb1
This issue breaks stacked cart unstacking devices which are used in storage systems.
Example minecart unstacker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IJHsvRl7P8