diff --git a/.github/workflows/maven.yaml b/.github/workflows/maven.yaml
index 1a26f31bfd5..bfcb5fed294 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/maven.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/maven.yaml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ on:
     # https://docs.github.com/en/actions/managing-workflow-runs/manually-running-a-workflow
 
 env:
-  SHARED_MVN_ARGS: '--show-version --no-transfer-progress'
+  SHARED_MVN_ARGS: '--show-version'
 
 permissions:
   contents: read
@@ -34,13 +34,9 @@ jobs:
           echo Github Ref ${GITHUB_REF} @ ${GITHUB_SHA};
           cd icu4j
           mvn deploy ${SHARED_MVN_ARGS} \
-            -pl main/icu4j \
+            -pl :icu4j,:utilities-for-cldr,:icu4j-root \
             -DaltDeploymentRepository=github::https://maven.pkg.github.com/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY} \
-            -P with_sources
-          mvn deploy ${SHARED_MVN_ARGS} \
-            -pl tools/utilities-for-cldr \
-            -DaltDeploymentRepository=github::https://maven.pkg.github.com/${GITHUB_REPOSITORY} \
-            -P cldr_tools,with_sources
+            -P cldr_utilities,with_sources
         env:
           GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
 # Note: can use 0.0.0-${GITHUB_SHA} as the version for hash-based.
diff --git a/icu4j/demos/pom.xml b/icu4j/demos/pom.xml
index 3515d4cedee..3c35f57cc56 100644
--- a/icu4j/demos/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/demos/pom.xml
@@ -35,4 +35,16 @@
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+        <!-- We don't want to deploy this to Maven -->
+        <configuration>
+          <skip>true</skip>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+
 </project>
diff --git a/icu4j/main/charset/pom.xml b/icu4j/main/charset/pom.xml
index 5626b166c78..b911c2a0f93 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/charset/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/main/charset/pom.xml
@@ -7,11 +7,13 @@
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
-    <artifactId>main</artifactId>
+    <artifactId>icu4j-root</artifactId>
     <version>74.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>icu4j-charset</artifactId>
+  <description>icu4j-charset is a supplemental library for icu4j, implementing Java Charset SPI.</description>
 
   <properties>
     <icu4j.api.doc.root.dir>${project.basedir}/../..</icu4j.api.doc.root.dir>
@@ -68,12 +70,6 @@
           </archive>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
-      <plugin>
-        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
-        <configuration>
-          <skip>false</skip>
-        </configuration>
-      </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 
diff --git a/icu4j/main/collate/pom.xml b/icu4j/main/collate/pom.xml
index e58ee511ce3..a4ffdc12d43 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/collate/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/main/collate/pom.xml
@@ -7,8 +7,9 @@
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
-    <artifactId>main</artifactId>
+    <artifactId>icu4j-root</artifactId>
     <version>74.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>collate</artifactId>
@@ -66,4 +67,16 @@
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+        <!-- We don't want to deploy this to Maven -->
+        <configuration>
+          <skip>true</skip>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+
 </project>
diff --git a/icu4j/main/common_tests/pom.xml b/icu4j/main/common_tests/pom.xml
index 6f8abdddaa6..17237e54a44 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/common_tests/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/main/common_tests/pom.xml
@@ -7,8 +7,9 @@
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
-    <artifactId>main</artifactId>
+    <artifactId>icu4j-root</artifactId>
     <version>74.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>common_tests</artifactId>
@@ -96,6 +97,13 @@
           </execution>
         </executions>
       </plugin>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+        <!-- We don't want to deploy this to Maven -->
+        <configuration>
+          <skip>true</skip>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 
diff --git a/icu4j/main/core/pom.xml b/icu4j/main/core/pom.xml
index 773546c020e..3fa38b170af 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/core/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/main/core/pom.xml
@@ -7,8 +7,9 @@
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
-    <artifactId>main</artifactId>
+    <artifactId>icu4j-root</artifactId>
     <version>74.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>core</artifactId>
@@ -60,6 +61,13 @@
           </archive>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+        <!-- We don't want to deploy this to Maven -->
+        <configuration>
+          <skip>true</skip>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 
diff --git a/icu4j/main/currdata/pom.xml b/icu4j/main/currdata/pom.xml
index 61b717824f4..08388948449 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/currdata/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/main/currdata/pom.xml
@@ -7,8 +7,9 @@
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
-    <artifactId>main</artifactId>
+    <artifactId>icu4j-root</artifactId>
     <version>74.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>currdata</artifactId>
@@ -26,4 +27,16 @@
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+        <!-- We don't want to deploy this to Maven -->
+        <configuration>
+          <skip>true</skip>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+
 </project>
diff --git a/icu4j/main/framework/pom.xml b/icu4j/main/framework/pom.xml
index c3bcdbdc38b..140f44a0a03 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/framework/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/main/framework/pom.xml
@@ -7,8 +7,9 @@
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
-    <artifactId>main</artifactId>
+    <artifactId>icu4j-root</artifactId>
     <version>74.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>framework</artifactId>
@@ -46,8 +47,14 @@
           </archive>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+        <!-- We don't want to deploy this to Maven -->
+        <configuration>
+          <skip>true</skip>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 
-
 </project>
diff --git a/icu4j/main/icu4j/pom.xml b/icu4j/main/icu4j/pom.xml
index 27c8f6d9957..3fef0f1690b 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/icu4j/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/main/icu4j/pom.xml
@@ -8,11 +8,14 @@
 
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
-    <artifactId>main</artifactId>
+    <artifactId>icu4j-root</artifactId>
     <version>74.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>icu4j</artifactId>
+  <description>International Components for Unicode for Java (ICU4J) is a mature, widely used Java library
+    providing Unicode and Globalization support</description>
 
   <properties>
     <icu4j.api.doc.root.dir>${project.basedir}/../..</icu4j.api.doc.root.dir>
@@ -84,6 +87,7 @@
               <createDependencyReducedPom>true</createDependencyReducedPom>
               <dependencyReducedPomLocation>${project.build.directory}/dependency-reduced-pom.xml</dependencyReducedPomLocation>
               <promoteTransitiveDependencies>true</promoteTransitiveDependencies>
+              <useDependencyReducedPomInJar>true</useDependencyReducedPomInJar>
               <transformers>
                 <transformer implementation="org.apache.maven.plugins.shade.resource.ManifestResourceTransformer">
                   <manifestEntries>
@@ -110,12 +114,6 @@
           </filesets>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
-      <plugin>
-        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
-        <configuration>
-          <skip>false</skip>
-        </configuration>
-      </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 
diff --git a/icu4j/main/langdata/pom.xml b/icu4j/main/langdata/pom.xml
index 4818fa5ac53..2d754234d32 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/langdata/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/main/langdata/pom.xml
@@ -7,8 +7,9 @@
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
-    <artifactId>main</artifactId>
+    <artifactId>icu4j-root</artifactId>
     <version>74.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>langdata</artifactId>
@@ -26,4 +27,16 @@
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+        <!-- We don't want to deploy this to Maven -->
+        <configuration>
+          <skip>true</skip>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+
 </project>
diff --git a/icu4j/main/localespi/pom.xml b/icu4j/main/localespi/pom.xml
index ccdbb89a50e..b9d320f908b 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/localespi/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/main/localespi/pom.xml
@@ -7,11 +7,13 @@
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
-    <artifactId>main</artifactId>
+    <artifactId>icu4j-root</artifactId>
     <version>74.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>icu4j-localespi</artifactId>
+  <description>icu4j-localespi is a supplemental library for icu4j, implementing Java Locale SPI.</description>
 
   <properties>
     <proj.displayname>JDK locale service provider</proj.displayname>
@@ -183,13 +185,6 @@
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
 
-      <plugin>
-        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
-        <configuration>
-          <skip>false</skip>
-        </configuration>
-      </plugin>
-
     </plugins>
   </build>
 
diff --git a/icu4j/main/pom.xml b/icu4j/main/pom.xml
deleted file mode 100644
index 095eb574f6c..00000000000
--- a/icu4j/main/pom.xml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,43 +0,0 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<!--
-* © 2023 and later: Unicode, Inc. and others.
-* License & terms of use: http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html
--->
-<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
-  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
-  <parent>
-    <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
-    <artifactId>icu4j-root</artifactId>
-    <version>74.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
-  </parent>
-
-  <artifactId>main</artifactId>
-  <packaging>pom</packaging>
-
-  <properties>
-    <icu4j.api.doc.root.dir>${project.basedir}/..</icu4j.api.doc.root.dir>
-  </properties>
-
-  <modules>
-    <module>framework</module>
-    <module>core</module>
-
-    <!-- For publishing to Maven Central -->
-    <module>charset</module>
-    <module>collate</module>
-    <module>currdata</module>
-    <module>langdata</module>
-    <module>regiondata</module>
-    <module>translit</module>
-    <module>common_tests</module>
-
-    <!-- Shaded jar for publishing to Maven Central -->
-    <module>icu4j</module>
-
-    <!-- For publishing to Maven Central. Not shaded, but depends on the shaded artifacts above.
-         Also contains all the project properties (developers, scm, etc) needed for maven publishing.
-    -->
-    <module>localespi</module>
-  </modules>
-
-</project>
diff --git a/icu4j/main/regiondata/pom.xml b/icu4j/main/regiondata/pom.xml
index 07d5f86c297..c12261455c7 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/regiondata/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/main/regiondata/pom.xml
@@ -7,8 +7,9 @@
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
-    <artifactId>main</artifactId>
+    <artifactId>icu4j-root</artifactId>
     <version>74.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>regiondata</artifactId>
@@ -26,4 +27,16 @@
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+        <!-- We don't want to deploy this to Maven -->
+        <configuration>
+          <skip>true</skip>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+
 </project>
diff --git a/icu4j/main/translit/pom.xml b/icu4j/main/translit/pom.xml
index c7fae364602..0afd70003b8 100644
--- a/icu4j/main/translit/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/main/translit/pom.xml
@@ -7,8 +7,9 @@
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <parent>
     <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
-    <artifactId>main</artifactId>
+    <artifactId>icu4j-root</artifactId>
     <version>74.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>translit</artifactId>
@@ -61,4 +62,16 @@
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+        <!-- We don't want to deploy this to Maven -->
+        <configuration>
+          <skip>true</skip>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+
 </project>
diff --git a/icu4j/perf-tests/pom.xml b/icu4j/perf-tests/pom.xml
index b8b94e08575..e10ea7c18eb 100644
--- a/icu4j/perf-tests/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/perf-tests/pom.xml
@@ -40,4 +40,16 @@
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+        <!-- We don't want to deploy this to Maven -->
+        <configuration>
+          <skip>true</skip>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+
 </project>
diff --git a/icu4j/pom.xml b/icu4j/pom.xml
index 6d3c0169b4f..429d601d1cb 100644
--- a/icu4j/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/pom.xml
@@ -13,7 +13,8 @@
 
   <name>${proj-title} (${project.artifactId})</name>
   <description>International Components for Unicode for Java (ICU4J) is a mature, widely used Java library
-    providing Unicode and Globalization support</description>
+    providing Unicode and Globalization support.
+    This is the base artifact with common settings, not intended to use directly.</description>
   <url>https://icu.unicode.org/</url>
   <inceptionYear>1995</inceptionYear>
 
@@ -23,7 +24,23 @@
   </organization>
 
   <modules>
-    <module>main</module>
+    <module>main/framework</module>
+    <module>main/core</module>
+    <!-- For publishing to Maven Central -->
+    <module>main/charset</module>
+    <module>main/collate</module>
+    <module>main/currdata</module>
+    <module>main/langdata</module>
+    <module>main/regiondata</module>
+    <module>main/translit</module>
+    <module>main/common_tests</module>
+    <!-- Shaded jar for publishing to Maven Central -->
+    <module>main/icu4j</module>
+    <!-- For publishing to Maven Central. Not shaded, but depends on the shaded artifacts above.
+         Also contains all the project properties (developers, scm, etc) needed for maven publishing.
+    -->
+    <module>main/localespi</module>
+
     <module>demos</module>
     <module>samples</module>
     <module>tools/misc</module>
@@ -36,8 +53,7 @@
     <maven.compiler.source>1.8</maven.compiler.source>
     <maven.compiler.target>1.8</maven.compiler.target>
 
-    <maven_central_repo_url>https://oss.sonatype.org</maven_central_repo_url>
-    <maven-central-releases-repo-url>${maven-central-repo-url}/service/local/staging/deploy/maven2</maven-central-releases-repo-url>
+    <maven-central-repo-url>https://oss.sonatype.org</maven-central-repo-url>
     <maven-central-snapshots-repo-url>${maven-central-repo-url}/content/repositories/snapshots</maven-central-snapshots-repo-url>
 
     <junit.version>4.13.2</junit.version>
@@ -227,13 +243,6 @@
         <plugin>
           <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
           <version>3.1.1</version>
-          <!-- We don't want to deploy all submodules to Maven, so we make it opt-in.
-            What we want to publish to Maven Central are the current 3 artifacts (icu4j, charset, and localespi).
-            And what we publish to the GitHub Maven repository is the specific-to-CLDR version of ICU4J.
-          -->
-          <configuration>
-            <skip>true</skip>
-          </configuration>
         </plugin>
         <plugin>
           <artifactId>maven-site-plugin</artifactId>
diff --git a/icu4j/samples/pom.xml b/icu4j/samples/pom.xml
index 499cf5380ef..6795c80febb 100644
--- a/icu4j/samples/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/samples/pom.xml
@@ -30,4 +30,16 @@
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+        <!-- We don't want to deploy this to Maven -->
+        <configuration>
+          <skip>true</skip>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+
 </project>
diff --git a/icu4j/tools/build/pom.xml b/icu4j/tools/build/pom.xml
index 588442c3f57..e222ac9686a 100644
--- a/icu4j/tools/build/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/tools/build/pom.xml
@@ -28,4 +28,16 @@
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
+  <build>
+    <plugins>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+        <!-- We don't want to deploy this to Maven -->
+        <configuration>
+          <skip>true</skip>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
+    </plugins>
+  </build>
+
 </project>
diff --git a/icu4j/tools/misc/pom.xml b/icu4j/tools/misc/pom.xml
index 6eb6f434463..78942408839 100644
--- a/icu4j/tools/misc/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/tools/misc/pom.xml
@@ -43,6 +43,13 @@
           </archive>
         </configuration>
       </plugin>
+      <plugin>
+        <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+        <!-- We don't want to deploy this to Maven -->
+        <configuration>
+          <skip>true</skip>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 
diff --git a/icu4j/tools/utilities-for-cldr/pom.xml b/icu4j/tools/utilities-for-cldr/pom.xml
index b0eaa4906a8..210dd20844e 100644
--- a/icu4j/tools/utilities-for-cldr/pom.xml
+++ b/icu4j/tools/utilities-for-cldr/pom.xml
@@ -41,27 +41,45 @@
                </configuration>
            </execution>
          </executions>
-        </plugin>
+       </plugin>
+       <plugin>
+         <!-- Since this artifact is built from bits and pieces generating javadoc
+           for it fails (can't access references). And we don't really need it.
+           We publish the sources, and most IDEs can access the doc from there.
+         -->
+         <artifactId>maven-javadoc-plugin</artifactId>
+         <configuration>
+           <skip>true</skip>
+         </configuration>
+       </plugin>
+       <plugin>
+         <!-- We don't want this deployed to Maven Central. So by default we skip it. -->
+         <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
+         <configuration>
+           <skip>true</skip>
+         </configuration>
+      </plugin>
     </plugins>
   </build>
 
   <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
-      <artifactId>translit</artifactId>
+      <artifactId>icu4j</artifactId>
       <version>${project.version}</version>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
 
   <profiles>
     <profile>
-      <id>cldr_tools</id>
+      <id>cldr_utilities</id>
       <build>
         <plugins>
           <plugin>
-            <!-- Only deploy when the `cldr_tools` profile is active,
+            <!-- Only deploy when the `cldr_utilities` profile is active,
               otherwise it will also be deployed to Maven Central.
-              We can also try to specify `altDeploymentRepository` here.
+              We only invoke this profile when we want to deploy to the GitHub Maven repository.
+              We can even try to specify it here with `altDeploymentRepository`.
             -->
             <artifactId>maven-deploy-plugin</artifactId>
             <configuration>