Logan Touya
Assigned
Reported
Comments
Can confirm for 1.9.1 Pre-3
Packed ice also requires silk touch the last time I checked, but I understand the reasons why it should be fixed.
In the end however, it's ultimately up to the Mojang team if they want to fix it, I just wanted to throw out my opinion/thoughts. (Which aren't always right!)
Nothing wrong with faster transportation~ [We've been trying to make it faster for years!] it doesn't affect combat or general multiplayer play with unfair advantages, given silk touching ice and general nether travel are somewhat late-game things.
It would make exploring new areas more fun with travel time in the nether being shortened! And think of new redstone train stations people could make! With large cities connected in a more modern-style than minecarts!
Can confirm for 1.9 release, but this bug isn't necessarily game-breaking unless frozen oceans made a comeback. So I support keeping this bug.
It's also true several minecraft Youtubers/streamers support the feature, intended or not. So calling just one supporter of this a 'child' raises the question why several other people [including the community-famous ones] also support it. [It's okay to be against it; I personally was really surprised when I saw videos made specifically on the topic by LogDotZip and CaptainSparklez, 'begging' to keep it]
And like I said, silk touch is semi-late game. Even though it would be easy to gain the ice once you have a silk pick, a lot of time and effort would have to go into making the tunnel/track anyway!
Take Etho's lp and the tunnel he made around episode 445 [around 5:33 in that episode he talks about it] for example, he says it took over three hours to make and gather resources; plus the fact it isn't even complete!
It helps him have more places to work with, more creative ideas in completely different biomes far from home without having to make 5000 trips both ways with materials.
Not to mention Hermitcraft [ironically Etho also helped build it] has created a boat racing track; so this could be used as a fun novelty or ride in an amusement park.