What is the DocumentRoot? When you say the vHost has the necessary Directory section, can you confirm the file system path this is set for. Please include the contents of your .htaccess file and where exactly this is located. If you add some nonsense to your .htaccess file, does it “break”?

The site is working fine so the vhost settings are accurate. The directory is pointed at the site (/home/ubunut/sites/mywpsite). I've updated the question with the .htaccess.

@MrWhite - If the directory root is inaccurately entered in the vhost, then even the front page wouldn't render. Correct? mod_rewrite is enabled and confirmed by the console when I try to enable it. The typo in the .htaccess is a mystery considering I didn't put any of that in there manually. It was generated by selecting the radio button in the Permalinks settings.

"If the directory root is inaccurately entered in the vhost, then even the front page wouldn't render. Correct?" - Not necessarily, there's insufficient info in the question. If your DocumentRoot is set to /home/ubuntu/sites, but are accessing your site as example.com/my-wp-site/ then the "front page" would render correctly but permalinks would not. However, the "syntax error" I mentioned above is a show-stopper and suggests your vHost/server config is indeed misconfigured (as stated).

Okay, thank you. Are you suggesting that if the vhost is configured that would cause a typo in the automatically generated .htaccess file contents by WordPress? -- please notice the updates to my question as well.

Hello there, sir.

> Are you suggesting that if the vhost is configured that would cause a typo in the automatically generated .htaccess file contents by WordPress?

No - that "syntax error" is created by whatever bit of code created it (in this case, a "plugin"). This has nothing to do with the server config / vHost.

That "syntax error" (it's not strictly a "typo" unless someone had manually typed it - which I assume is not the case) would ordinarily break your site with a "500 Internal Server Error". The fact that you do not appear to be getting that "error" suggests that mod_rewrite is not actually enabled (although you've stated that it is). OR, .htaccess overrides are not enabled, although by the look of your server config - .htaccess overrides should be working OK.

You can test whether .htaccess overrides are enabled by simply typing some nonsense at the start of your .htaccess file (as I suggested earlier) - if you get a 500 error then it's "working" OK.

The vHost directives you've added to your question look OK. (Although why are you enabling Indexes?)

Although you shouldn't be setting AllowOverride All and Require all granted for the parent directory in the main server config - unless this is a specific requirement? You are overriding this anyway in the <VirtualHost> container.

Presumably, you don't have another .htaccess file located in /home/ubuntu/sites/?