I just wonder what kind/order of events will lead up to the point where you actually can walk home after the "Oh, it's getting late" message. I've tried to reproduce this in different ways now, but for me the game always fades out automatically after that message and I end up at my home without being able to "walk" there by myself.
Hard to say. I tried several options (entering houses, interactions, dialogues, completing sides quests..) and I always got the bug when I started from the latest save - completion +/- 33%.
Then I tried to start from my older save - completion +/- 31%. All went OK. No bug. I believe I followed the same pattern as before.
It looks like 5+ other players are having the same issue. So it looks like this bug is not that rare but also not very common.