Why does adding a provider crash android app? [duplicate]

Here is the problem in its minimal version. I have an android app that does nothing except print the sdk version in its onCreate method. I am using the AndroidManifest

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    package="com.example.ascaryalipi">

    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"
        android:maxSdkVersion="28"
        tools:ignore="ScopedStorage" />
    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/Theme.AscaryaLipi">
        <activity
            android:name="MainActivity"
            android:exported="true">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>

        </activity>
<!--
<provider
            android:name="android.support.v4.content.FileProvider"
            android:authorities="${applicationId}.provider"
            android:exported="false"
            android:grantUriPermissions="true">
            <meta-data
                android:name="android.support.FILE_PROVIDER_PATHS"
                android:resource="@xml/provider_paths"/>
        </provider>
-->
    </application>

</manifest>

Things work as expected. Then I uncomment the provider. The app compiles and installs (installDebug) fine. But it crashes the moment the app is run. Logcat gives no relevant message. At least I know that even the first line in onCreate after super.onCreate is not reached.

Following similar SO posts I have added:

android.useAndroidX=true #Was already there
android.enableJetifier=true

to my gradle.properties file. But nothing changed.

Please note that I am NOT using Android-Studio, just plain gradle. No Unity is used, as a similar SO post does. While I do not really use the FileProvider in my minimal example, I do have

import androidx.core.content.FileProvider;

in my MainActivity.java. My device runs SDK version 28.

PS: I am not a dev in absolute need of a quick answer. I would prefer answers that provide insight into the nature of the problem rather than just some "add this magic line to that magic file" type of answer :-)

Edit: I also have the provider_paths.xml in my res/xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<paths>
    <external-path name="external_files" path="."/>
</paths>