In JDK-8344030 the configure option --with-tools-dir was deprecated. There are however still references to it in the configure script. Specifically toolchain_microsoft is still trying to use the variable it was setting up, and there are error messages telling the user to try using it.

UTIL_DEPRECATED_ARG_WITH claims that the argument is ignored, but is still setting it up with AC_ARG_WITH, which means that the variables are still setup. On Windows it's still picked up and is actively used by users to point to their non standard Visual Studio installation. This argument needs to be un-deprecated.