Piston powered by redstone block one block away

While trying to make a redstone contraption today I found a bug in Version 1.17.1 where if a redstone block is place one block away from a piston it will still be powered. It only works when it's made vertically and the redstone block is above the piston that is facing down. This is causing some crazy issues with redstone contraptions. How can a piston be powered through a redstone block with air between them?1