January 16, 2023
To me they have always seemed very out of place compared to pretty much everything else, despite being one of the oldest blocks in the entire game.
For one thing they just feel distinctly different than almost every block. Especially during the pre alpha-beta days.
There are relatively few blocks they work well with, and relatively few buildings that they're the best block for.
And they're really time consuming to get in any reasonable quantity. Clay spawns in small amounts, you need to dig it up under water, then you have to smelt it in top of that. An entire stack of clay and 8 pieces of coal only makes 16 bricks. They're almost always impractical in survival.
There are a lot of odd blocks now, but to me bricks are still the strangest, and potentially least useful block in the game. In my opinion the best use for them is just as a sacrifical block in the event you need something that you can put a completely different texture on.
If you could make them out of terracotta in the same way you make stone bricks, and if you could dye them I'd probably be more interested in building some things with them.