As is, Debezium can't be used with Kafka 0.10.x (which, AFAIU still is in wide use) due to the usage of the Admin Client API only introduced in 0.11.x. So we should explore whether we can run on 0.10.x in case the DB history topic has been manually created upfront. If it's possible to avoid the Admin Client usage in this case, 0.10.x might be enough to run Debezium.

We shouldn't spend too much effort on this, i.e. if there's substantial work required or there are other obstacles apart from the Admin Client usage, we shouldn't do it. I.e. let's do it as a favor to users of older versions of doable in half a day or so, otherwise let's spend our time rather on higher-value features.