[androiddpeployqt] gradle builds fail when using newer Gradle versions than 2.x - QtCreator modify project code

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* Where:
Build file '/home/user/src/build-theproject-Android_for_armeabi_v7a_GCC_4_9_Qt_5_8_0-Debug/android-build/build.gradle' line: 32

* What went wrong:
A problem occurred evaluating root project 'android-build'.
> Failed to apply plugin [id 'com.android.application']
   > Minimum supported Gradle version is 3.3. Current version is 2.2.1. If using the gradle wrapper, try editing the distributionUrl in /home/user/src/build-theproject-Android_for_armeabi_v7a_GCC_4_9_Qt_5_8_0-Debug/android-build/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties to gradle-3.3-all.zip

* Try:
Run with --stacktrace option to get the stack trace. Run with --info or --debug option to get more log output.

BUILD FAILED

Total time: 31.49 secs
Building the android package failed!
  -- For more information, run this command with --verbose.
19:10:49: The process "/home/user/Qt/5.8/android_armv7/bin/androiddeployqt" exited with code 14.
Error while building/deploying project theproject (kit: Android for armeabi-v7a (GCC 4.9, Qt 5.8.0))
When executing step "Build Android APK"

buildscript {
// ... //
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.android.tools.build:gradle:2.3.0-beta3'
    }
}

...
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-3.3-bin.zip

OTHER_FILES += \
  android/AndroidManifext.xml \
  android/build.gradle \
  android/gradlew \
  android/gradlew.bat \
  android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties \
  android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar

android {

  QT += nativeandroid

  DISTFILES += \
    android/build.gradle \
    android/gradlew \
    android/gradlew.bat \
    android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar \
    android/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties

  ANDROID_PACKAGE_SOURCE_DIR = $$PWD/android
  ANDROID_SUPPORT = v4 v7

  contains(ANDROID_TARGET_ARCH,armeabi-v7a) {
    ANDROID_EXTRA_LIBS =
  }

}

# changed to avoid QtCreator 4.2.1 modifying distributonUrl - pinning it to gradle-2.2.1-all.zip
CLASSPATH=$APP_HOME/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar

PSPPID="ps --no-headers --format ppid --quick-pid"
PP1ID="`$PSPPID $$ | tr -d ' '`"
[ -n "$PP1ID" -a "$PP1ID" != "0" ] && PP2ID="`$PSPPID $PP1ID | tr -d ' '`"
[ -n "$PP2ID" -a "$PP2ID" != "0" ] && PP3ID="`$PSPPID $PP2ID | tr -d ' '`"
[ -n "$PP3ID" -a "$PP3ID" != "0" ] && PP4ID="`$PSPPID $PP3ID | tr -d ' '`"

PIDCMD="ps --no-headers --format comm --quick-pid"
[ -n "$PP1ID" -a "$PP1ID" != "0" ] && PP1CMD="`$PIDCMD $PP1ID`"
[ -n "$PP2ID" -a "$PP2ID" != "0" ] && PP2CMD="`$PIDCMD $PP2ID`"
[ -n "$PP3ID" -a "$PP3ID" != "0" ] && PP3CMD="`$PIDCMD $PP3ID`"
[ -n "$PP4ID" -a "$PP4ID" != "0" ] && PP4CMD="`$PIDCMD $PP4ID`"

BINC="qtcreator"
BIND="androiddeployqt"
[ "$PP4CMD" = "$BINC" -o "$PP3CMD" = "$BINC" -o "$PP2CMD" = "$BINC" ] && BUILD_BY_QTCREATOR=true
[ "$PP3CMD" = "$BIND" -o "$PP2CMD" = "$BIND" -o "$PP1CMD" = "$BIND" ] && BUILD_BY_ANDROIDDEPLOYQT=true

# Qt gradle caching - use for all Qt builds
[ -n "$BUILD_BY_ANDROIDDEPLOYQT" ] && {
  export GRADLE_USER_HOME="`readlink -f $APP_HOME/../../.gradle`"
  [ -d "$GRADLE_USER_HOME" ] || mkdir "$GRADLE_USER_HOME"
}

gradle.properties
local.properties
gradle-app.setting