I cast an eye over this thread but get dizzy with the details.

I would say that back in the day it was this mod that required me to use virtual hosts for local development work as detailed in my previous posts. No other method (alias) would work.

Long ago I updated this code for php7 and other bits, and to keep it alive posted it on Github.

I see someone has posted a "new" version in the plugins.
This I have not compared to mine so I cannot vouch for it.

I know mine works....so maybe you should compare it.