It isn't sodium or any other mod bc I tested just by itself.

Thanks for reporting, I honestly have never tested with smooth lighting off. I’ll get it fixed 👍

I use smooth lighting because of the nostalgia aspect to it. Feels like beta days with it off.

Well I'd hate to ruin the nostalgia - it's fixed in 0.17.3 (only on 1.19.2 at the moment)