Why not use the System.Logger logging facade built-into JDK9+ instead of the third party SLF4J alternative? System.Logger seems the simpler option. I understand that when the Kafka project was supporting Java 8, System.Logger was not an option, but now the Kafka project requires JDK 11+.
https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/17/docs/api/java.base/java/lang/System.Logger.html
