Pentasis

I tested this with several mods, separately. So only one mod at a time, and they all show this behaviour which leads me to think it's either a vanilla thing or a forge bug. When planting a sapling on a non-dirt block, that block will turn into a dirt block when the sapling grows into a tree. E.g. the mod "Planting dirt for saplings" has dispenser type blocks or the mod "Supplementaries" has a planter. Both those will turn into dirt. MC: 1.18.1 Forge: 39.0.76 (also tested on older version 66)

The initial part of your answer is what I was looking for, thank you so much for clearing it up for me.

I'm learning both Java and minecraft modding at the same time. And one of the things I notice when looking at tutorials and source code of existing mods, is that utility classes are (always?) used for the setup code for Registries, Config, Eventhandlers, etc. Is this how Forge needs it to be? Is there any reason why I shouldn't use an object over static fields/methods in a utility class? NOTE: I am not asking for a discussion over whether utility classes are "evil"; I just want to know the reason behind this.