I think I found the answer in this error message:
Unable to strip library '/builds/eighthave/torservices/app/build/intermediates/merged_native_libs/release/out/lib/x86/libtor.so' due to missing strip tool for ABI 'X86'. Packaging it as is.
If the binaries on Maven Central include debug symbols, then stripping them while assembling the APK will change them. I wonder what the right thing to do is here? Ship stripped binaries? Require stripping in the APK build? Disable stripping?