...
Work was started here for replacing mysql with maridb4j. But it does not work on Apple Silicon. So the first step would be to ensure that one can be able to build the standalone on M1, M2, etc MacBooks.
Because Mariadb4j requires Java 17, this version of the standalone will support only those distributions of OpenMRS that support openmrs core from version 2.7.0 and above because support for Java 17 was add from 2.7.0