fixes #268

• adds more specific version maven/JDK version requirements enforced by the maven enforcer plugin
• requires JDK 21 for the build
• uses 17 as the release version
• updates GH action build to include JDK 24
• cleans up various deprecations/warnings that the build currently produces
• includes the maven wrapper so that the minimum required maven version is simpler to achieve
• rely more on properties in the pom file (e.g. use it to have a single place to define Java version, or plugin/dependency versions).