Ok, changing DB values in config.php got you rolling, but is DB server localhost or a shared DB server (ip or some internal hosting fqdn)?
localhost would mean you have control over config of DB server. A shared DB server means you don't.
Yes, you could slide along with utf8 settings for shared DB server, but what of future versions of Moodle - 3.10 and 4.0? utf8mb4 is 'the future' me thinks and so in fairly short time frame you might be looking at moving upwards with hosting package or another provider.
'SoS', Ken