Mysql error 1045 "access denied for" every user

[enrique71]

The error number in the title is a MySQL error number. I followed all of Microsoft's guidance for installing WSL2, Ubuntu 20.04, and MySQL. No linux or MySQL user is able to connect to MySQL in order to startup WordPress (wp config create fails with permission denied, no matter what permissions I use).
At this point trying to find further assistance through the MySQL Reference Manual which has much more detailed instructions, but at 2.10.3 "Testing the Server" the installation differs significantly from what the manual expects:

• mysqladmin version does not work. It then advises mysqladmin version -p which gives the error "'Access denied for user 'oliver'@'localhost' (using password: YES)'".
• sudo mysqladmin version works.
• Unix Socket reports /var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock instead of /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock as expected.
• If I issue mysqld_safe --user=mysql & as recommended, I get error "144: cannot create /var/log/mysql/error.log: Permission denied", but with sudo mysqld daemon starts with no errors.
• There is no directory called bin within the MySQL install directory, which appears to be /var/lib/mysql.

Any help, or pointers to where I can find help, would be much appreciated!