Isn't the recommended way of distributing Java applications nowadays to bundle a custom JRE with it? Wasn't project jigsaw especially created to be able to just bundle libraries and/or classes the application requires instead of the whole JRE?
Yes. The official stance of the OpenJDK organization is that there is no such thing as a "JRE" anymore, and applications are expected to use jlink or similar to bundle a customized Java runtime.
The distributions that matter here are for the JDK, which simply provides the "full" Java runtime along with developer tools such as javac and jlink.
Yup, you go and explain that to, say. Ubiquiti. Their network management software still requires end-users to download JRE v8 (and noothing else: it won't work). And, once end-users do that, they get sued by Oracle. But, serves them right, right?