So now that this is clear, why? This "Player Animated Java" allows you to easily animate custom players, while keeping the power of Animated Java. This only works for 1.21.5+ (tested in 1.21.8). Now ...
Quarkus 3.8.x requires Java 17. However quarkus-maven-plugin still targets Java 11 for some reason (EDIT: explained further down). This allows things to proceed ...