This simple bug started in 1.9 and hasn't been fixed for 7+ years.

Issue

The eyes of ender point to the 0,0 chunk coordinate and not the 4,4 chunk coordinate (The stairs are at 4,4).

Reproduce

Open a new world on any version between 1.9 and the latest and follow the eyes of ender to the stronghold. Open the f3 debug menu and you will see the eyes of ender will converge on the 0,0 chunk coordinate (Corner of the chunk) in 1.19- 23w46a, and to the 8,8 chunk coordinate in 1.9-1.18.2. The stairs are always at the 4,4 chunk coordinate.

Possible Solution

The solution is either moving the coordinates the locate stronghold structure returns, or by moving the location the eyes of ender point at by 4 blocks on both axes

(second option is a little janky but easy, and won't mess up its spawning. I know this because I made a fabric mod to fix this issue)

Why is this an issue?

Digging straight down at the eye of ender was intended to lead to the stairwell as shown in the 1.9 betas from 15w49 - 1.9 pre2 when the eye of ender was changed to point to the 4,4 chunk coordinate at the stairwell instead of the end portal.

In the 1.9 betas, the eyes were slightly bugged because they kept pointing to the end portal until you re-logged, then they would point to the stairwell at the 4,4 starting chunk coordinate. In the process of fixing it, the eyes of ender were set to the middle of the chunk (8,8) causing players to miss the stronghold if it is facing north or west. Following the release of 1.19 to present, eyes now point to the 0,0 chunk coordinate which will cause players to miss if the stronghold is facing east or south.

Images attached to visualize all the information given

Related but this ticket resolves that.

1. MC-253394