I'm not convinced this is a duplicate of the issue that you've referenced (MCPE-169772). There are other duplicates on that ticket which do relate to mine, but MCPE-169772 relates to the mob ejection from boats issue, whereas mine concerns boats without any mobs in them. I realise the bugs may be the result of one issue, but they are not fundamentally the same behaviour or bug.
My ticket MCPE-171767 has been flagged as a duplicate of this one, but like many of the others that have been flagged as duplicates on this ticket, it relates to a very different bug/output, even if it is possibly being caused by the same issue. My issue relates to not being able to use existing boats which do not contain a mob, whereas this ticket is around the mob ejection issue. Not precious, just hopeful that both bugs are being looked at within this as my issue is not referenced in the description of this ticket at all.