Self-Hosted server error: 'owner' cannot be null

Hi, I've got two questions. The first is the topic of the thread:

I've installed the server on my Ubuntu server following the instructions here: https://docs.openvehicles.com/en/latest/server/installation.html

I believe I did everything indicated in the guide, but something is not working correctly. Originally there were drupal errors in the logs, so I disabled the drupal plugin (recommended in the guide, but there's no help on how to install it or make it work). Currently, I have these recurring errors:

Use of uninitialized value $name in hash element at plugins/system/OVMS/Server/DbDBI.pm line 154.
DBD::mysql::db do failed: Column 'owner' cannot be null at plugins/system/OVMS/Server/DbDBI.pm line 385.

I looked in the database and found a couple of places where owner seemed expected. My DB currently has these entries:

mysql> select * from ovms_cars;
+-----------+-------------+-------+-----------+---------------+-----------+-------------+----------+----------+--------+---------+---------------------+---------------------+------------+
| vehicleid | vehiclename | owner | telephone | carpass       | userpass  | cryptscheme | v_ptoken | v_server | v_type | deleted | changed             | v_lastupdate        | couponcode |
+-----------+-------------+-------+-----------+---------------+-----------+-------------+----------+----------+--------+---------+---------------------+---------------------+------------+
| Sticky    | Sticky      |     1 |           | **mypassword* | **pass** | 0           |          | *        | CAR    |       0 | 1900-01-01 00:00:00 | 1900-01-01 00:00:00 |            |
+-----------+-------------+-------+-----------+---------------+-----------+-------------+----------+----------+--------+---------+---------------------+---------------------+------------+

mysql> select * from ovms_owners;
+-------+--------+-----------------+-----------+--------+---------+---------------------+
| owner | name   | mail            | pass      | status | deleted | changed             |
+-------+--------+-----------------+-----------+--------+---------+---------------------+
|     1 | jdande | j****@gmail.com | **pass**  |      0 |       0 | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 |
+-------+--------+-----------------+-----------+--------+---------+---------------------+

mysql> select * from ovms_apitokens;
+-------+---------------------+-------------+---------+--------+---------------------+---------------------+---------------------+
| owner | token               | application | purpose | permit | created             | refreshed           | lastused            |
+-------+---------------------+-------------+---------+--------+---------------------+---------------------+---------------------+
|     1 | **token_from_app**  | app         | control | none   | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 | 0000-00-00 00:00:00 |
+-------+---------------------+-------------+---------+--------+---------------------+---------------------+---------------------+

Is there some other entry I need to make to fix these "can't find owner" errors? What is the correct way to get started with self-hosted server?

There's a chance that this is not the root cause of my issue. I can see the module and app communicate with the server, but the app shows no data and I don't think the server is recording anything.

2nd question:

Why is self-hosted server a second-class consideration? I'm excited about this project to keep my data private, but the default is to use a public server. When I found OVMS, I was surprised there wasn't a Docker image ready to go to self-host. Is there something I'm missing in my concerns about user privacy and vehicle control and using a public server?

(I'm referring to this comment in the install guide when I say second-class and default:

"You should, however, start by asking yourself the question ‘do I need this?’."

And based on my experience the instructions aren't complete, and therefore probably aren't used very often.)

Thanks in advance!