Not able to publish app to google play with applicationId not matching the package name

[amilien]

My android app has a package name com.a.b, but I am using different appId = com.c.d in gradle as I plan to have one source code for different flavours, so many customized apps could be published to Google Play with different applicationIds but having same package name:

    productFlavors {
        ...
        production {
            applicationId "com.c.d"
            buildConfigField('String', 'SERVER_URL', props["production.server.url"])
            buildConfigField('String', 'SERVER_NAME', props["production.server.name"])
        }
    }

When I launch ./gradlew :app:publishProductionRelease, I am getting an error:

> A failure occurred while executing com.github.triplet.gradle.play.tasks.GenerateEdit$Generator
   > 404 Not Found
     {
       "code" : 404,
       "errors" : [ {
         "domain" : "global",
         "message" : "Package not found: com.c.d.",
         "reason" : "notFound"
       } ],
       "message" : "Package not found: com.c.d",
       "status" : "NOT_FOUND"
     }

It seems it checks the real package name when trying to publish, so the question is how can I publish app using appId diffing from real package name?
This approach works fine when using Firebase App Distribution.
Also Google Play account doesn't have any app uploaded yet, I am trying to upload it for the first time using GPP.

Versions

• Gradle Play Publisher: 2.7.3
• Gradle Wrapper: 6.2
• Android Gradle Plugin: 3.6.2

Log retrieved by launching with --info key:

-------------- REQUEST  --------------
POST https://www.googleapis.com/androidpublisher/v3/applications/com.c.d/edits
Accept-Encoding: gzip
Authorization: <Not Logged>
User-Agent: gradle-play-publisher Google-API-Java-Client/1.30.9 Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.34.2 (gzip)
x-goog-api-client: gl-java/1.8.0 gdcl/1.30.9 mac-os-x/10.15.5
Content-Encoding: gzip

curl -v --compressed -X POST -H 'Accept-Encoding: gzip' -H 'Authorization: <Not Logged>' -H 'User-Agent: gradle-play-publisher Google-API-Java-Client/1.30.9 Google-HTTP-Java-Client/1.34.2 (gzip)' -H 'x-goog-api-client: gl-java/1.8.0 gdcl/1.30.9 mac-os-x/10.15.5' -H 'Content-Encoding: gzip' -d '@-' -- 'https://www.googleapis.com/androidpublisher/v3/applications/com.c.d/edits' << $$$
-------------- RESPONSE --------------
HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
Alt-Svc: h3-29=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-27=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-25=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-T050=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q050=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q046=":443"; ma=2592000,h3-Q043=":443"; ma=2592000,quic=":443"; ma=2592000; v="46,43"
Cache-Control: private
Server: ESF
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
Content-Encoding: gzip
Vary: Referer
Vary: X-Origin
Vary: Origin
X-XSS-Protection: 0
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2020 09:54:13 GMT
Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8

Total: 276 bytes
{
  "error": {
    "code": 404,
    "message": "Package not found: com.c.d.",
    "errors": [
      {
        "message": "Package not found: com.c.d.",
        "domain": "global",
        "reason": "notFound"
      }
    ],
    "status": "NOT_FOUND"
  }
}

[amilien]

Sorry, just realized that for the first time app build needs to be published manually to GP!