The Gradle Nightmare in Android Studio

The Gradle Nightmare in Android Studio

 This is a relatively common message in Android Studio if you dare to touch Gradle:

11:13 PM    Gradle sync failed: Minimum supported Gradle version is 3.3. Current version is 2.2. If using the gradle wrapper, try editing the distributionUrl in C:\Users\Acer Aspire\AndroidStudioProjects\MyApplication\gradle\wrapper\gradle-wrapper.properties to gradle-3.3-all.zip
                    Consult IDE log for more details (Help | Show Log)

 I have installed Gradle in c:\gradle and configured Android Studio File->Settings->Build, Excution ..->Gradle to point to this installation. 

If you try to rebuild the project, you still get:

Error:Could not find com.android.tools.build:gradle:3.5.0.
Searched in the following locations:
    file:/C:/Program Files/Android/Android Studio2/gradle/m2repository/com/android/tools/build/gradle/3.5.0/gradle-3.5.0.pom
    file:/C:/Program Files/Android/Android Studio2/gradle/m2repository/com/android/tools/build/gradle/3.5.0/gradle-3.5.0.jar
    https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/android/tools/build/gradle/3.5.0/gradle-3.5.0.pom
    https://jcenter.bintray.com/com/android/tools/build/gradle/3.5.0/gradle-3.5.0.jar
Required by:
    project :

The question is: How come Androd Studio ignores my Gradle settings and sets off to Karura forest to look for gradle installations?? 

It seems Gradle refactoring is non-existent in Android Studio, hence, upgrade at you own risk You could spend the rest of your life sorting out the resulting mess.