I play a survival world on MCPE (Minecraft Bedrock Edition) with split controls (with a crosshair). I opened my inventory after updating my game to 1.18.31, and had my crosshair facing the floor, whilst holding a firework rocket. To my suprise, the firework rocket was used: it flew up. I would then close my inventory, and as expected, nothing abnormal happened. I would then open my inventory again, only to find that another firework rocket would be used. I was near a gate, so I then pointed a crosshair to the gate, and opened my inventory. The gate opened. I would then select a block item on my hotbar, and open my inventory. If my crosshair could not reach another block, it would make the "air-gasping sound." If the crosshair could reach a block, a block would be placed. Whilst holding a tool, such as a sword, the sword would attack a block, entity, etc., whenever I opened my inventory. I also noted that when holding a pickaxe, the action of opening the inventory would NOT begin mining a block.

These actions are all accessible through a single-tap action on the screen. Deactivating split controls gives us further insight into the bug. When one tries to open the inventory whilst not using split controls, one can see for a brief second, the circle that indicates input (or tapping, such as tapping on a pig to show where the player tapped on the screen. Such an action would be representative of "attacking.") would appear "under" the open inventory button. This likely means that the game thinks that the player is tapping to attack, while what, we the player, wish to do is open the inventory.

This is likely the reason why the player "single taps" when opening the inventory. However, this is my personal speculation, and is not confirm officially.

Prior to the specified versions, I never experienced this bug. I downloaded MInecraft about 10-11 months ago. I have obtained recordings of the bug, that I attempted to share, but the file size limit restricted my showcase. I have provided two examples here, and have the rest of the showcases recorded, if requested for.

[The ticket creation did not allow me to include that the bug also affected 1.18.31]