Affects 1.17.1, because of course it does, why wouldn't it. Three major versions and two years!
Not fixed in 1.16. Two major versions and still not fixed - why?
Not fixed in 1.16rc1, because of course it's not.
Not fixed in 1.16pre2.
Not fixed in 20w22a.
Still not fixed over a year later, present in 20w20b.
Still not fixed in 20w18a.
Almost a year later - still not fixed. Still present in snapshot 20w13b
Still not fixed in 20w06a.
Not fixed in 1.15. This has been an issue for most of the year, how has this not been even looked at!?
Not fixed in 19w40a.
A related issue is that you cannot "push" a mine cart off of powered rails without looking in front of the cart at a specific (roughtly 45 degree) angle either to its left or right, whereas previously you could just face forward. Minecarts in general now move much slower.
I really don't understand why any of this changed.
Still present as of 19w34a snapshot.
Not fixed in 1.14.4
Not fixed in 1.14.2
I completely agree with this and hope it gets resolved. I have a massive rail network in my world that this update has all but broken. Why change the cart mechanics at all when they were basically fine?!
To update in response to TorteShui's comment, this kind of works - The basic functionality is still broken, but occasionally if I'm holding down W and flailing the mouse around a lot, the minecart will start moving. There doesn't appear to be a particular direction that will cause the minecart to start moving if I'm facing towards it. Flailing only works every so often and it's really annoying to have to do that when the previous behaviour (face in direction want to go + W) worked perfectly every time.
Holding W doesn't change anything. It's when holding down W that there is no movement off the end of the unpowered golden rail - there is no issue when using W to push along normal rails or powered golden rails (albeit it's much slower in 1.14 than it was under 1.13).
Still an issue in 1.19.4, after four full years. If this bug was a child it'd be walking and talking by now.