This is still an issue in 1.14.4.
It does only occur when blocks are actually copied in. If the waterloggable blocks are already in place (non-waterlogged) the water doesn't spread.
This actually has the potential to completely break certain redstone contraptions in a way that requires manual repair. Especially timing related circuits are almost guaranteed to break if built on a chunk border.
On a different ticket, which was marked as duplicate referring to this one, I've uploaded a world that demonstrates this: https://bugs.mojang.com/secure/attachment/224822/Redstone%20breaks%20on%20chunk%20borders.zip
Also affects 1.14.3
The free bed doesn't even have to be far away, they might stand right next to it and don't notice.
Isn't there the possibility to keep a global (or region file based) record of portal blocks? Then, portals only need to check for the positions in that list instead of searching through millions of blocks. Portals are pretty rare blocks, so that list doesn't even need to be that large. That should be way more efficient than searching for essentially a needle in a haystack.
(I understand that it would be very hard to "upgrade" existing worlds to this feature, but I guess it could improve portal performance by a lot.)