Cordova, Android, deprecated Gradle features, incompatibility-CodePudding

Yes, I am aware of this thread:

So when you see this, what do you think is causing the problem, hmmm? The "Build Failed" message occurs IMMEDIATELY after the Gradle message. So you'd assume that Gradle is causing the problem, no?

APPARENTLY NOT!!!

cordova build android --verbose gives me MANY more error messages -- including the one that actually fixed the problem. The cordova-plugin-barcodescanner plugin I was using is supposed to require some code added to config.xml:

<config-file target="AndroidManifest.xml" parent="/*" mode="merge">
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CAMERA" />
    <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera" />
    <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.camera.autofocus" />
</config-file>

But apparently that is repeated somewhere else because the ACTUAL error that was stopping the build was Element uses-feature#android.hardware.camera at AndroidManifest.xml:39:5-85 duplicated with element declared at AndroidManifest.xml:35:5-60

Once I removed that code from the config.xml file, it finally builds successfully.

Good Lord, how ridiculous!!