And java -version

Java never supported single letter options, which is why any other meta-character is necessary at all.

ls -la == ls -l -a, but then you can't ls -all because it's the same, you need --all (or +all).

Java supports -cp or -classpath but in both cases the token after the - always identifies a single option, so you don't need the second dash.

I get the logic, but it still creates cognitive load to have to keep track of what a given cli utility supports

java -version AND java --version

Maybe because java was intended to run on multiple operating systems, although both look out of place on MS-DOS!

java --version only works on Java 11 and newer.