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Whether the plugin you try to apply is implemented in Groovy or Kotlin shouldn't matter.
But - at least for me - it is not possible to say where the problem lies from your description.
Can you maybe knit an <https://stackoverflow.com/help/mcve|MCVE>?

yeah I'll have to see if I can reproduce somehow...I suspect there may just be something goofy going on with our artifact repositories

Also possible.
What is the exact error you are getting?
Can you share a build `--scan`?