It probably has nothing to do with the gamerule thing. I have the same issue on Xbox, since 1.16.1 came out. I also cant eat, or plant crops. Mobs not dropping items also include shearing sheep.
The game in its current states is basically unplayable ín survival Mode.
Update: entity drops seem fine. Trees drop saplings, sticks and stuff, and I am able to place saplings. Crops drop their items, but planting crops seem broken atm.
Update 2: I tried reinstalling the game, which fixed the mentioned bugs, but messed up something else and made my loading times 10x longer. Another reinstalling fixed the problem.