Using the Jetbrains Kotlin plugins for Gradle is currently only possible with the old syntax, as they are not properly published with the Gradle Plugin Portal.
Besides the nicer syntax, a benefit is that one does not need to manage the actual classpath and the plugins are better isolated from each other. In addition, IDE’s could integrate with the portal for plugin name autocompletion and documentation, while in the legacy syntax they need to know which artifacts correspond to which plugins.
There is an open issue for the ‘kotlin’ plugin: https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/KT-5756
And community provided workaround: https://github.com/Zoltu/kotlin-gradle-plugin
That said, there is still no way to use the dokka or the new compiler extensions without dropping to manual classpath management.
Is there any plan from Jetbrains to change their build to publish to Gradle Plugin Portal, or shall I go ahead and copy the Zoltu/kotlin-gradle-plugin aproach for the plugins I need?