The deprecation is mentioned here in the knowledgebase:
https://access.redhat.com/solutions/2682021

And there is mention upstream that it's deprecated:
https://jboss-container-images.github.io/openjdk/ubi8/ubi8-openjdk-17.html

And certain products document it:
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_jboss_enterprise_application_platform/7.3/html/getting_started_with_jboss_eap_for_openshift_container_platform/configuring_eap_openshift_image

But any mention of JAVA_OPTIONS has dropped out entirely from the current OpenJDK s2i documentation:
https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_build_of_openjdk/11/html-single/using_source-to-image_for_openshift_with_red_hat_build_of_openjdk_11/index

Can we document this somewhere, as customers are getting caught unaware?