Looks like the underlying issue here is that later JDKs can generate classes where the `MethodParameters` attributes contain empty names. This is allowed by the spec:
```
If the value of the name_index item is zero, then this parameters element indicates a formal parameter with no name.
```
However, this requires the R8 fix in
https://r8-review.googlesource.com/c/r8/+/79240, which has been backported to versions 8.1.44 and 8.0.44. This has not been backported to R8 3.3.x, which is the version referenced in the first stack trace mentioned in this question, so upgrading to the latest 8.0.x version(or later) should fix the issue.
This analysis is based on retracing the stack trace from the question, which points to exactlyø the `visitParameter` method:
```
Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "String.length()" because "<parameter1>" is null
at com.android.tools.r8.graph.DexString.<init>(DexString.java:34)
at com.android.tools.r8.graph.DexItemFactory.createString(DexItemFactory.java:2188)
at com.android.tools.r8.graph.JarClassFileReader$CreateMethodVisitor.visitParameter(JarClassFileReader.java:872)
at com.android.tools.r8.org.objectweb.asm.ClassReader.readMethod(ClassReader.java:1387)
at com.android.tools.r8.org.objectweb.asm.ClassReader.accept(ClassReader.java:744)
at com.android.tools.r8.graph.JarClassFileReader.internalRead(JarClassFileReader.java:125)
at com.android.tools.r8.graph.JarClassFileReader.lambda$read$0(JarClassFileReader.java:96)
at com.android.tools.r8.utils.ExceptionUtils.lambda$withOriginAndPositionAttachmentHandler$5(ExceptionUtils.java:238)
at com.android.tools.r8.utils.ExceptionUtils.withOriginAndPositionAttachmentHandler(ExceptionUtils.java:246)
at com.android.tools.r8.utils.ExceptionUtils.withOriginAndPositionAttachmentHandler(ExceptionUtils.java:234)
at com.android.tools.r8.utils.ExceptionUtils.withOriginAttachmentHandler(ExceptionUtils.java:225)
at com.android.tools.r8.graph.JarClassFileReader.read(JarClassFileReader.java:96)
at com.android.tools.r8.graph.JarClassFileReader.read(JarClassFileReader.java:92)
at com.android.tools.r8.dex.ApplicationReader$ClassReader.lambda$readClassSources$2(ApplicationReader.java:422)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinTask$AdaptedCallable.exec(ForkJoinTask.java:1456)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinTask.doExec(ForkJoinTask.java:387)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool$WorkQueue.topLevelExec(ForkJoinPool.java:1312)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.scan(ForkJoinPool.java:1843)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.runWorker(ForkJoinPool.java:1808)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ForkJoinWorkerThread.run(ForkJoinWorkerThread.java:188)
```