I filed a bug report here: https://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=99593 which has since been closed as dupe of MySQL 8.0.15 is slower than MySQL 5.7.25. I subsequently downgraded to MySQL 5.7.30 and all of the performance issues have vanished - indicating that my woes have have little or nothing to do with configuration, hardware, table schema or queries.
Very disappointed with this version to say the least! I have a reproducible test caseacknowledged and it's as basic as you can get. Let this question be a warning to anyone considering (MySQL 8.0.20 or by association Ubuntu 20workaround provided.04 LTS) See answer blow for production use until this is fixeddetails.