Using /replaceitem to place torchflower seeds and/or pitcher pods in a farmer's inventory demonstrates that villagers can plant these crops, but cannot pickup these items off the ground.
A different world is needed to test if this also affects the new Deep Dark biome. (Asking the moderators) Would it be acceptable to use a Java 1.17 world converted using Chunker and then upgrade to 1.19+ in-game?
Edit: This does not affect the Deep Dark on both Java and Bedrock. Old chunks are upgraded to 1.18 "Caves and Cliffs Part 2" first and do not generate newer biomes.
The current splash texts will display the same message in different languages throughout the holidays and is intended behavior.
Still affects the latest release version (1.20.15)