mysql-connector-python query script not working, but only from PHP

I am running a LAMP setup w/ the 64bit Raspbian OS on a Raspberry Pi4.

I am having a weird issue with 'utf8' and executing python scripts from PHP that are using a connector to my database in mariadb.

I have no issues running the scripts and modifying the database through my IDE.

I have no issues inserting a record into the same table manually with PHP:

// Create connection
$conn = new mysqli($servername, $username, $password, $database);
$sql = "INSERT INTO commandRequestLog VALUES (0, 1001, 'phpinsert', CURRENT_TIME(), CURRENT_TIME(), 0, 'testing php sql connection', null)";

I have no issues running/returning other logical python scripts in PHP with exec() that do not connect to the database using the same syntax:

exec('python3 command_processor.py '.$UserType.' '.$UserId.' '.$PyCommandLvl.' "'.$CommandHdr.'" "'.$strCommand.'"', $output);

foreach ($output as $line) {
 echo $line ."<br>";
}

That is until I introduce a connection to the database within my script:

import mysql.connector

def newConnection():
return mysql.connector.connect(host='localhost',
                               port=3306,
                               ##charset='utf8',
                               database='xxxxxxx',
                               user='xxx',
                               password='xxxxxxxx')

I am attempting to run this python script from a PHP exec():

if insert_commandRequest(intUserId, strRequestedCommand, strDescription) == -1:
    strOutput = 'sql still not working wtf...'+intUserId+strRequestedCommand+strDescription
    print(strOutput)
    
    try:
        newConn = newConnection()##Fails right here...
   except Error as error:
        return error
    finally:
        print('finally')

Then it will return this Exception Error along with the remainder of the expected output:

Character set 'utf8' unsupported ##Primary Error...
Command Requested : [asdf]
Command Function : [asdf]

I recall having an issue with utf8 initially even in my IDE, but the quick fix was to downgrade my mysql-connector-python version to 8.0.29. That was working fine everywhere up until introducing the first connection within any PHP exec().

I have gone down damn near every rabbit hole such as:

• Trying various PHP exec functions like shell_exec()

• Re-installing (python, python3, python modules, pip, pip3, mysql-connector-python, php)

• Modifying my.conf mysql file to include 'utf8mb4' (and various others) for all defaults then restoring my database like 5 times. (Got a great database creation script now though :) )

• Trial and error on various utf8 syntax

• Using mariadb.connect instead of mysql.connector.connect which then results in all of my PHP exec()'s not returning any output

MariaDB Server version

obi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo mysql
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 64
Server version: 10.5.15-MariaDB-0+deb11u1 Debian 11

Current database db.opt file

default-character-set=utf8mb4
default-collation=utf8mb4_unicode_ci

Current /etc/mysql/my.cnf file:

[client-server]
# Port or socket location where to connect
# port = 3306
 socket = /run/mysqld/mysqld.sock

# Import all .cnf files from configuration directory
!includedir /etc/mysql/conf.d/
!includedir /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/

[client]
default-character-set=utf8mb4

[mysql]
default-character-set=utf8mb4


[mysqld]
collation-server = utf8mb4_unicode_ci
init-connect='SET NAMES utf8mb4'
character-set-server = utf8mb4

Python3 and PHP package info:

obi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo apt-cache show python3
Package: python3
Source: python3-defaults
Version: 3.9.2-3
Installed-Size: 89
Maintainer: Matthias Klose <[email protected]>
Architecture: arm64
Replaces: python3-minimal (<< 3.1.2-2)
Provides: python3-profiler
Depends: python3.9 (>= 3.9.2-0~), libpython3-stdlib (= 3.9.2-3)
Pre-Depends: python3-minimal (= 3.9.2-3)
Suggests: python3-doc (>= 3.9.2-3), python3-tk (>= 3.9.2-0~), python3-venv (>= 3.9.2-3)
Description-en: interactive high-level object-oriented language (default python3 version)
 Python, the high-level, interactive object oriented language,
 includes an extensive class library with lots of goodies for
 network programming, system administration, sounds and graphics.
 .
 This package is a dependency package, which depends on Debian's default
 Python 3 version (currently v3.9).
Description-md5: 691450e63b8789f4ba89699b19c60642
Multi-Arch: allowed
Homepage: https://www.python.org/
Cnf-Extra-Commands: python
Cnf-Priority-Bonus: 5
Tag: devel::interpreter, devel::lang:python, devel::library,
 implemented-in::c, implemented-in::python, role::devel-lib,
 role::program, role::shared-lib
Section: python
Priority: optional
Filename: pool/main/p/python3-defaults/python3_3.9.2-3_arm64.deb
Size: 37880
MD5sum: 3cb918cd19c9186711e9c0395e668277
SHA256: 79197285d25e73a2a07667efe80af152dd932ac5ef3e13717f1ac824d111ea81

obi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo apt-cache show php
Package: php
Source: php-defaults (76)
Version: 2:7.4+76
Installed-Size: 13
Maintainer: Debian PHP Maintainers <[email protected]>
Architecture: all
Depends: php7.4
Description-en: server-side, HTML-embedded scripting language (default)
 PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used
 open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited
 for web development and can be embedded into HTML.
 .
 This package is a dependency package, which depends on latest stable
 PHP version (currently 7.4).
Description-md5: 99c58fa41ae5c5908fd17241a53bfdd9
Section: php
Priority: optional
Filename: pool/main/p/php-defaults/php_7.4+76_all.deb
Size: 6340
MD5sum: 33859926f35bdfdc784d9e7312d16a92
SHA256: 10ca22712771dc343fb6600cbdbc88069069467fcc5c85782ee89abbc8c81f59

I know the simple solution would be to just run all of my database connections through PHP instead of Python. But I already wrote everything in Python and everything else is working just fine, I feel like I should be able to get over this hurdle, but I am pretty stuck.

Any tips are much appreciated, cheers!