Well, Sherman ... if nothing else, you should know that situation isn't just yours. You are not alone!
There are other moodle users who have been hosted with XYZ for years and through checking their environment discovered they didn't have access to higher PHP or higher MySQL/MariaDB. Com with provider ... same as you ... must upgrade hosting.
Had the environment check worked as it should with your 2.8, you would have been alerted not to even try.
Depressing ... frustrating ... but ... lesson learned and you are better for it. Orange, on the other hand, has lost a customer ... and will probably loose more as time goes along. Besides that ... social media picking up from Moodle.org forums has also resulted in a 'black eye' for Orange.
Best to leave a sinking ship with life boat!
'SoS', Ken