Ah, yes it does. Not sure how I didn't notice that, but that's the exact bug I've been experiencing.
Apologies for that, but thanks for letting me know! Glad to know that Mojang already knows about it.
Can confirm on 1.18 Pre-release 5.
Can confirm on 1.18 Pre-release 4.
Yes, I realize this is a duplicate of MC-241843. However, when I was redirected to Discord in order to notify staff about the bug, I was unable to post any messages, and I don't have a Reddit account either.
Since version 1.18's official release is planned to be 10 days from when I made this post, I decided the best way to navigate around my issues is to post another bug report. I realize that this is not the ideal solution, and I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. However, I have been rather busy studying for exams, and I am worried that if I spent time to try to fix the issues I'm having on discord or create a Reddit account, I would not be able to notify anyone without giving an ample amount of time to fix this bug.
With that said, I thank you for taking your time to look at my concerns regarding this bug, and best of luck on fixing it!
Can confirm in 1.18 Pre-release 5
Actually, I would like to request that this issue be reopened, as I have noticed this bug in my single player world as well. However, after some testing, I was able to narrow down the cause of this bug:
It appears that the falling block is only affected by the bug if it tries to occupy a space at Y-level 0. In other words, the block beneath the falling block entity must be at Y-level -1.
I tested this bug with gravel, sand, and an anvil. Works for all three. The anvil also plays the breaking sound when destroyed, but takes no damage from falling 1 block (haven't tested it at further distances).
Edit: Forgot to mention the world seed I was in when I discovered this bug, just in case it has anything to do with it:
333678060826391989
2nd Edit: After a little more testing, I seem to only be able to reproduce the bug if the gravity block is placed at Y-level 1, and falls down only 1 tile.
I tried this with a full durability anvil. It produces its breaking sounds when it turns into an item, but the anvil itself doesn't actually take damage.