[Request]: Clean up deprecated build features and warnings in Gradle 8 #3864

Plugin

all packages

Use case

This issue is created to handle the prerequisite cleanup needed for the package readiness to apply any change requested tracked in many duplicates #3830, #3831, #3833, #3834, #3835, #3840, and #3863.

Before we can safely address the underlying upgrades requested in those issues, we need to ensure our packages are free of current deprecation warnings.

Current Behavior

Active builds currently output warnings regarding the use of deprecated features:
Deprecated Gradle features were used in this build, making it incompatible with Gradle 9.

Proposal

We should audit our packages to replace legacy DSL properties or outdated configuration attributes with their modern Gradle 8 equivalents. Clearing these warnings is the necessary first step before tackling the broader package updates requested in the duplicate issues. This is partly has been done by my PR #3858 and its siblings (#3859 #3860 #3861)