However, this would limit the ability of the Gradle ecosystem plugin authors to take advantage of new Java features and improvements.

One example is when one of the most popular plugins started requiring Java 17 because the underlying framework behind the plugin began requiring 17, and code from the framework was used in the plugin itself.
What would have happened if Gradle was limited to _only Java 11_ at the time?

                .warn("Version not locked for default bindings plugins ["
                        + "stub-plugin-initialize, "
                        + "stub-plugin-process-resources, "
                        + "stub-plugin-compile, "
                        + "stub-plugin-process-test-resources, "
                        + "stub-plugin-test-compile, "
                        + "stub-plugin-test, "
                        + "stub-plugin-package, "

        lifecycle.allPhases().forEach(phase -> phase.plugins()
                .forEach(plugin -> plugin.getExecutions().forEach(exec -> exec.getGoals()
                        .forEach(goal -> goals.computeIfAbsent(phase.name(), n -> new ArrayList<>())
                                .add(plugin.getGroupId() + ":" + plugin.getArtifactId() + ":" + plugin.getVersion()
                                        + ":" + goal)))));

            task.getSourceFile().convention(dslReference.getRoot().file("dsl.xml"));
            task.getPluginsMetaDataFile().convention(dslReference.getRoot().file("plugins.xml"));
            task.getClassDocbookDirectory().convention(dslReference.getRoot());
            task.getClassMetaDataFile().convention(dslMetaData.flatMap(ExtractDslMetaDataTask::getDestinationFile));

          <name>classLoadingStrategy</name>
          <description>The class loading strategy: 'self-first' (the default), 'parent-first' (loads classes from the parent, then from the extension) or 'plugin' (follows the rules from extensions defined as plugins).</description>
          <version>1.1.0+</version>
          <defaultValue>self-first</defaultValue>
          <required>false</required>
          <type>String</type>
        </field>

					</excludes>
				</configuration>
			</plugin>
			<plugin>
				<groupId>org.jacoco</groupId>
				<artifactId>jacoco-maven-plugin</artifactId>
			</plugin>
			<plugin>
				<artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
			</plugin>
			<plugin>
				<artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
			</plugin>
			<plugin>
				<artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
				<configuration>
					<archive>

import org.gradle.api.services.ServiceReference
import org.gradle.api.tasks.Input
import org.gradle.api.tasks.TaskAction
import org.gradle.kotlin.dsl.registerIfAbsent
import org.gradle.language.base.plugins.LifecycleBasePlugin

@Suppress("UnstableApiUsage")
internal abstract class NullawayStatusTask : DefaultTask() {
    @get:ServiceReference
    abstract val statusService: Property<NullawayStatusService>

    @get:Input

  <defaults>
    <default>
      <key>package</key>
      <value>org.apache.maven.usability.plugin</value>
    </default>
  </defaults>
  <classes>
    <class rootElement="true" xml.tagName="paramdoc">
      <version>1.0.0</version>
      <name>ExpressionDocumentation</name>
      <description>The root of a parameter plugin expression document.</description>

import org.jetbrains.kotlin.gradle.tasks.KotlinJvmCompile

fun Project.applyJavaModules(
  moduleName: String,
  defaultVersion: Int = 8,
  javaModuleVersion: Int = 9,
  enableValidation: Boolean = true,
) {
  plugins.apply("me.champeau.mrjar")

  configure<MultiReleaseExtension> {
    targetVersions(defaultVersion, javaModuleVersion)
  }

  tasks.named<JavaCompile>("compileJava9Java").configure {

            The lists of the remote repositories for discovering plugins.
          </description>
          <association>
            <type>Repository</type>
            <multiplicity>*</multiplicity>
          </association>
          <comment>
            This may be removed or relocated in the near
            future. It is undecided whether plugins really need a remote
            repository set of their own.