This has existed for a very long time. If you wait a fraction of a second longer before placing the torch, the sand will fall and break on the torch.
I don't think that issue correctly matches this one. MC-7335 was talking about it not visually connecting whereas here I'm talking about it visually connecting but not working as if it was connected. I mainly bring this up because there were recently some redstone changes based on making the visual connections match with the actual connection.
I'm aware of the reason why it doesn't work. I'm saying that it should work though. This is similar to the other issue I created MC-217937