sorry, but you mix all the things together - not the best idea...

at first: my words was a "instruction" to make a copy of your old wb-project in a subfolder. you start this job before i send my words and use another way - so forget my words.
After that, I can upgrade to WB 2.12.
it was only a question.... but some words at the begin...
former wb-version needs a way like this to upgrade from older versions
1. Upgrade to WB 2.8.3, 2. Upgrade to 2.10, 3. Upgrade to 2.11, 4. Upgrade to 2.12.x
Only the latest version 2.12.1 give's the possibility to upgrade directly from vers 2.8.3 to the latest version 2.12.1 - these are only two steps - you understand?
you make's not a upgrade, you start with a new version, a empty project and you use copy&paste, to bring the content from the old version to the new one. i dont know, how many pages and sections you have, maybe a lot of work. But if you want to be safe for the actual PHP-Version 7.2 and newer, you have to use WB 2.12.1 at the end, so you need at minimum one step more, but only a small step, if the page run's with WB 2.11.x, so it doesn't matter
I think some of the configuration is still incorrect. For example, the config.php file I found when I returned to this project included the line:
require_once __DIR__.'/framework/initialize.php';
I changed it to:
require_once '/nfs/webroot/testing/framework/initialize.php';
__DIR__ , the "magic constant" - give's the actual folder back - it's in use since PHP 5.3. What is the used PHP-Version there?
Why do you think, there is a problem with this constant __DIR__? do you get a message, error report about this? and if YES, what is the exact message?
to use the constant __DIR__ on this place in the config.php, make's it sure, the you cannot go out of the range from the cms
For example: if your path is not the correct path to this config-file, it is possible, that the script go'es into a different folder and maybe into another system. please try to understand the possibilities and dont forget: a lot of files inside of the cms calls this config.php from different places.
but.. if we say: okay, your new path is the correct path and give the same result, where is the difference between both paths and why is this the solution for you?
I started some time ago to set up a new site in HTTPS....... and when I came back to the test site it was not loading correctly
see my first words from the last answer
Looks at the moment, that the certificate is not active, so try it with the simple http or set this adress as exception
here the link without https: http://testing.greenmaking.com/admin/
on my german webspace (Company: Strato") every subfolder is automatically also a subdomain. i can use it as subdomain or as fulldomain, if i buy a domain and set my subfolder as target. if i use a folder as subdomain, i have nothing to do, i can use there the SSL-Certificate from the main-domain and have a https-page. But if i use it as own, single domain, i needs a new certificate for this domain. i dont know, how it works on your page / your domain
i "play" a little with your posted link
https://testing.greenmaking.com and here the results (if you dont want to publish your domain in a lot of version, ask a admin like dbs or hgs via PM to remove the links or this complete part here
1. Your link
https://testing.greenmaking.com - give's a Under construction Message and a Unsafe Warning - maybe a result of the not working certificate
see also answer from dbs about the "Under construction-Message" - it's the result of an empty pages table - it's also a normal page after a fresh install of WB, it's nothing to show
2. Link to the backend _->
https://testing.greenmaking.com/admin/if you dont rename the folder "admin" ( a way, to protect your project), the default folder for the administration panel is /admin, but in you case, i get a redirect error to adress
https://testing.greenmaking.com/admin/start/index.php/login/index.php, default redirect is
https://testing.greenmaking.com/admin/login/index.phpmaybe result of the changed path in your config.php, maybe a wrong WB_URL in config.php, maybe the wrong files inside of your admin-Folder - not possible to say without more details
3. at the moment, the adress is completely broken, looks like a redirect loop without a end, sometimes a result of a wrong .htaccess or wrong server setting
So, if you ask me...
- if you use a .htaccess to bring non-ssl-request's to the ssl-adress, rename it for a while to htaccess.txt
- use in your config.php the WB_URL without https (use only http)
- change your path to the initialize.php back to the original with __DIR__
- maybe, you upload the files from your target version (2.11) again to the server and overwrite everything there, because, i'm not sure about the redirect problem in the backend
with these steps, you can add now your content and you can work with the page. to bring the page later to https, it need's only any small step's
- a working certificate for this domain
- changing the WB_URL in config.php
- changing intern adresses in content from http to https if you use adresses like this (for example: in the old WB_Version, all Pictures in the content has a hard-coded absolute adress in the database, but if you copy & paste the content from the old to the new version, the script change this links to the new format, but this works only in the new modules like wysiwyg, news)
You said that the wb_settings table is important. I looked at this table in the new database (for the testing site, the one I'm getting based on the config.php file). I don't see any settings that directly apply, except that it still has the wb_version set to 2.10.0. Do you think the wb_settings table is different enough between 2.10 and 2.11 to cause this?
dont mix the contents...
my "how-to" was a instruction, to make a old WB 2.8 work in WB 2.11 or newer. thats not the official way and not recommended, if you not know, what you doing.
you go'es a different way, start with a fresh install. it's not neccesary to change anything in the database with this way, but you have to add the whole content step by step now. Start here with the install of the missing modules (if needed). the wb-2.11-package (exactly all packages) has own module versions for the modules in my next picture. Dont overwrite this modules with a older version, maybe with a copy from the modules-folder of wb 2.8, it will not work!
But if you use in the old project other modules like a gallery etc, make a zip of the content inside the module-folder and install it as a new module in the new wb-version, but check at first in the addon area for a newer version ->
https://addon.WebsiteBaker.org/pages/en/browse-add-ons.phppicture: default (and new module versions) in WB 2.11.0
