After the 1.20 release all boats that were already placed in the world have to be broken and placed again to interreact or be used. Cannot step into boat, cannot use leads, its like they dont exist except if we break them. Once broken, the boats being placed work fine. so I assume this is just an odd side affect of a small change made in 1.20. More of an FYI than it is a request to fix, since players can just break the boat to fix the issue.