I have now noticed this with smokers and composters placed before 19w11a as well. I'm thinking it might be an issue where these are now villager work sites, but weren't when they were placed, and the world update isn't getting their data right?
Except I'm having the same torch glitch on another server. Something intermittent?
Except now I can place torches fine. ???
It is not fixed in any meaningful sense. Farmers will occasionally harvest and occasionally plant, but over the course of 30 minutes, we're talking 2 squares planted and 1 harvested.