JREs have basically been replaced with building custom executables via jlink. It basically includes a barebones JVM with only the modules that you need. You no longer have to either distribute or ask your users to download a JRE that includes the kitchen sink, you instead use jlink to create a custom distribution that only includes the modules that your code actually uses. For example, if your application does not use Swing, jlink won't include it.

If you are distributing software based on java a 40mb jre in place of a 400mb jdk is surely preferred. You can build them yourself for each OS you target with jlink, or you can just grab the latest built and tested one from e.g. Bellsoft - but not Adoptium or Oracle.

Java has been "breaking changes" between releases to make python blush for a few years now, 17 finally looks like a worthy migration from 8.

Officially at least it seems that there are no post Java 8 JREs (or maybe Java 11 - I don't remember exactly) which is a shame. I know I can do it myself but having a small off the shelf runtime sure was convenient.