Editing a note turns insignificant HTML newlines to br tags

[user1823]

Example:

Desktop:

AnkiDroid: (displays incorrectly)

After syncing to Desktop without making any edit to the note on AnkiDroid, no change happens in the HTML.

But after making a small edit

The linebreak in the HTML gets replaced by a <br> tag.

Turning off the option added in #7692 solves the issue in the sense that the HTML is no longer altered after editing the card in AnkiDroid. However, the card still displays incorrectly on AnkiDroid (same as the second image above).

Also, this is a suboptimal solution because it takes the note editor one step away from a WYSIWYG editor (because all the <br> tags become visible).

Also, I think that the title of the preference is misleading. I think that it should be "Replace HTML with newlines" because it replaces <br> tags with newlines when enabled.

Originally posted by @user1823 in #3304 (comment)

Debug Info:

AnkiDroid 2.17 alpha 17

[david-allison]

Let's move this back to #3304, thanks!

Duplicate of #3304