Unable to launch Minecraft Java Edition due to corruption in Launcher

This is more information in relation to https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-200062 which was closed in error.

When you look at the stack trace provded by the original reporter, the logfile contains large amounts of corruption, and the crash is actually caused by 'java/lang/NoSuchMethodError's being triggered by the corrupt methods.

Here are the relevant parts of the corruption in the launcher (this is from the stack trace that was provided in 200062, that was missed when that ticket was closed in error).

Internal exceptions (10 events):
Event: 3.216 Thread 0x000000000286a000 Exception <a 'java/lang/NoSuchMethodError': java.lang.Object.a(Lcom/mojang/serialization/Codec;)Lcom/mojang/serialization/Codec;> (0x000000071e7bb3f0) thrown at [C:\re\workspace\8-2-build-windows-amd64-cygwin\jdk8u51\3951\hotspot\src\share\vm\interpreter\l�C��C��-婰�E�>�LY��NY��NY��NY��NY��NY��N�Z�
Event: 3.236 Thread 0x000000000286a000 Exception <a 'java/lang/NoSuchMethodError': java.lang.Object.a(Lfy;Lbly;)Lbly;> (0x000000071fdea250) thrown at [C:\re\workspace\8-2-build-windows-amd64-cygwin\jdk8u51\3951\hotspot\src\share\vm\interpreter\linkResolver.cpp, line 582]
Event: 3.284 Thread 0x000000000286a000 Exception <a 'java/lang/NoSuchMethodError': java.lang.Object.a()Ldx$b;> (0x000000071a645c58) thrown at [C:\re\workspace\8-2-build-windows-amd64-cygwin\jdk8u51\3951\hotspot\src\share\vm\interpreter\linkResolver.cpp, line 582]
Event: 3.285 Thread 0x000000000286a000 Exception <a 'java/lang/NoSuchMethodError': java.lang.Object.b()Ldx$a;> (0x000000071a64bb60) thrown at [C:\re\workspace\8-2-build-windows-amd64-cygwin\jdk8u51\3951\hotspot\src\share\vm\interpreter\linkResolver.cpp, line 582]
Event: 3.577 Thread 0x0000000027240000 Exception <a 'java/lang/NoSuchMethodError': java.lang.Object.lambda$rewrite$0(Lcom/mojang/datafixers/View;Lcom/mojang/datafixers/functions/PointFree;)Lcom/mojang/datafixers/View;> (0x000000075f74b088) thrown at [C:\re\workspace\8-2-build-windows-amd64-cygw�yE�2
@
Event: 3.630 Thread 0x000000000286a000 Implicit null exception at 0x0000000002f9c16c to 0x0000000002f9c19b
Event: 3.681 Thread 0x000000000286a000 Exception <a 'java/lang/NoSuchMethodError': java.lang.Object.a(Lnr;)Lnr;> (0x000000074dc4cf50) thrown at [C:\re\workspace\8-2-build-windows-amd64-cygwin\jdk8u51\3951\hotspot\src\share\vm\interpreter\linkResolver.cpp, line 582]
Event: 3.681 Thread 0x000000000286a000 Exception <a 'java/lang/NoSuchMethodError': java.lang.Object.a(Lnr;Lnr;)Lnr;> (0x000000074dc4ee88) thrown at [C:\re\workspace\8-2-build-windows-amd64-cygwin\jdk8u51\3951\hotspot\src\share\vm\interpreter\linkResolver.cpp, line 582]
Event: 3.875 Thread 0x000000000286a000 Exception <a 'java/lang/NoSuchMethodError': java.lang.Object.lambda$static$0(Ljava/lang/String;)Ljava/lang/Boolean;> (0x0000000762460f98) thrown at [C:\re\workspace\8-2-build-windows-amd64-cygwin\jdk8u51\3951\hotspot\src\share\vm\interpreter\linkResolver.c>���@
Event: 4.152 Thread 0x0000000022c61000 Implicit null exception at 0x00000000036fc90f to 0x00000000037003a5

I am also suffering the same problem, and have a similar level of corruption in my logs, which are attached.

My hypothesis is that the 'bundled jre' has become corrupt at some point in the distribution, which is why only new installs are seeing this problem, whilst older installs are working fine.