I believe, regardless whether you have a “plugins” section in your “build.settings”, the “Android Build” will go through an “Authorizing plugins” process, and it is likely this is where the error occurs.
Perhaps, you could turn on “verbose debug mode” which, hopefully, could give you more clues where the error occurs.
Using the Windows PowerShell (Admin), [Windows Key]+[X key]
reg ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Ansca Corona\Corona Simulator\Preferences" /f /v debugBuildProcess /d 5
Re-run the “Android Build” and share any additional error message around these area on your “Simulator Console”,
> Configure project :App
Authorizing plugins
Plugins collector output: