jdkhome flag doesn't work

Trying to use --jdkhome flag with the default visualvm (1.4.2 190225) with openjdk-8-jdk (8u242-b08-0ubuntu3~18.04) doesn't work. The command I am running is

$ visualvm --jdkhome /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-amd64

The splash will appear and then the program will close with no message, error or otherwise.

However running the same command with the copy of visualvm downloaded from https://visualvm.github.io (at the time of writing 1.4.4 build 190918) the command works successfully.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 18.04
Package: visualvm 1.4.2-2~18.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.3.0-26.28~18.04.1-generic 5.3.13
Uname: Linux 5.3.0-26-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.10
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: i3
Date: Mon Feb 10 10:57:53 2020
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-07-12 (212 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20190210)
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: visualvm
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)