Please provide the link to the Moodle.org directions (maybe they need to state up front some statements for users to read).
Something to note about directions found on Moodle.org: hopefully, they declare the system for which the directions apply. Some are for Ubuntu. Some are for CentOS. There are suttle differences in the locations of things as defaults for the OS. CentOS is based on RedHat Enterprise and closely related to Fedora (the later being the community version of RH). For as long as I can remember (near 20+ years now), the RH 'family' has ALWAYS used /var/www in apache config (but maybe that's why the author of the moodle docs changed things - security by obsecurity?
However, having said that, a Linux AMP server is flexible enough so that a knowledgeable user can change the defaults to just about any daemon config to whatever they think appropriate. Such might be the case with docs on Moodle.org. Whomever wrote the docs might have thought it best to provide 'off one' type directions ... that will still work (thought to be easier/more secure?) for most users. Those directions, however, probably don't match the 1000's of web pages/blogs etc. on internet that show/tell how to.
Having said that will also state it is difficult to provide ONE set of directions for all linux distros and the differences that providers might initiate on their own (for whatever reason).
Bottom line for you ... yes, you should be ok.
Would encourage you, however, to dive a little more into the config of apache, php, and mysql ... the pieces that make up what Moodle runs under. Sooner or later that knowledge will be handy ... maybe even required.
'spirit of sharing', Ken