MySQL server silently fails to start after upgrading from 5.7.40 to 8.0.32

After upgrading packages to the the new quarterly release mysql was upgraded to 8.0.32 
and it fails to start and does not produce any failure message on the console and I 
couldn't find any relevant failure message anywhere in /var/logs.

I have updated my.cnf by copying the entire file from my.cnf.sample.

I've reverted back to the earlier BE with my working mysql5 and here's the diff between /
usr/local/etc/mysql/my.cnf and /tmp/my.cnf which was copied from the BE containing 
mysql8

--- /usr/local/etc/mysql/my.cnf 2019-07-16 14:41:30.000000000 +0100
+++ /tmp/my.cnf 2023-04-15 17:10:55.395944000 +0100
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-# $FreeBSD: head/databases/mysql57-server/files/my.cnf.sample.in 414707 2016-05-06 
14:39:59Z riggs $
-
@@ -19 +17 @@
-slave-load-tmpdir               = /var/db/mysql_tmpdir
+replica-load-tmpdir             = /var/db/mysql_tmpdir
@@ -23,2 +20,0 @@
-master-info-repository          = TABLE
-relay-log-info-repository       = TABLE
@@ -31 +27 @@
-expire_logs_days                = 30
+binlog_expire_logs_seconds      = 2592000
@@ -45,2 +40,0 @@
-query_cache_type                = 0
-query_cache_size                = 0
@@ -51 +45 @@
-innodb_data_file_path           = ibdata1:82M:autoextend
+innodb_data_file_path           = ibdata1:128M:autoextend
@@ -54 +48 @@
-innodb_log_file_size            = 256M
+innodb_redo_log_capacity        = 512M
@@ -59 +52,0 @@
-skip-symbolic-links

-- 
Mike Clarke