Bullet lists require blank lines when starting a sublist, otherwise they will be interpreted as a paragraph continuation:
http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/restructuredtext.html#bullet-lists
The documentation notes that "Warnings may be issued by the implementation", but currently there is no error issued when inserting a blank line would result in a sublist (see attached example.rst).
This is a generic problem for all lists:
"Blank lines separate paragraphs from each other and from other body
elements." (https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/ref/rst/restructuredtext.html#paragraphs)
"Blank lines may be omitted when the markup makes element
separation unambiguous, in conjunction with indentation."
(https://docutils.sourceforge.io/docs/ref/rst/restructuredtext.html#blank-lines)
The rationale is, that paragraphs might contain line wraps at
arbitrary places and valid output like
should pass without further intervention.
Which level should the message be:
Errors/Warnings will show up in the output (even if the output is as intended).
Info may be overlooked.
Do we want/tolerate the overhead (Docutils would need to check every paragraph line for valid
block-level markup).
See also the similar problem with field lists in https://sourceforge.net/p/docutils/feature-requests/80/.