I wonder is there a specific reason Gradle is stuck at version 3.2.1 in Debian? These days, many projects require version 4.1 or later (due to the Android build chain having this requirement).
Also, on Ubuntu since a approx. a year Gradle doesn't even start when installed via apt: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libnative-platform-java/+bug/1683761
