Nice! Gradle is indeed a bit on the sluggish part, but it does handle all of the grunt work with dependencies, both automatically downloading them and ensuring they're linked into your final build package (especially when those dependencies also have their own dependencies).
One thing I should point out though: you should also be building Android App Bundles (.aab) for submission to the Play Store and not just .apks these days. The build process is not all that different, and lets Google optimize the final download package for each individual user's device, saving space and download time.