Bones can be crafted from raw meat (except fish).
String can be crafted from wool of any colour.
Slime balls can be crafted from cactus.
Ender pearls can be smelted from twisting vines.
Blaze rods can be smelted from gunpowder.
Rotten flesh can be smelted from cooked meat (including fish).
Spider eyes can be smelted from beetroot.
Ghast tears can be crafted from blue ice.
Gunpowder can be crafted from weeping vines.
Shulker shells can be crafted from popped chorus fruit.
Resource blocks that can be used as part of a beacon base only require 4 ingredients, instead of 9.
Chainmail armor can be crafted from chain blocks.
Sticky pistons and leads can be crafted with honeycomb instead of slime balls.
Wood types, including the nether mushroom "wood", can be processed in the stone cutter.
Tridents can be crafted from prismarine shards and quartz.
Bread can be smelted from wheat.
Dispensers can be crafted from a dropper and a bow recipe.
Corals and coral fans can be smelted into dye of their colour.
Chests can be crafted from logs.
Sticks can be crafted from logs.
Repeaters can be crafted without having to make redstone torches.

Chest loot enchantments have been nerfed.
Vines no longer require tools to harvest, so can be harvested with pistons.
Leaf blocks don't drop sticks, but drop an increased number of saplings so all tree types can be farmed sustainably.
Ender chests don't require silk touch to mine.