How did I fix the «Can't create test file» MariaDB / MySQL error?

Step 1

mount --bind <path to mysql data> /var/lib/mysql

stackoverflow.com/a/38846388

Step 2

In /etc/fstab:

/var/www/mysql /var/lib/mysql none bind 0 0

serverfault.com/a/141508
serverfault.com/a/763227

Step 3

In /etc/mysql/conf.d/mysql.cnf:

[mysqld]
datadir = /var/lib/mysql