RHEL7.9

If you look at:

lsof -p 2741 | grep STREAM

where does it show the socket?

Did you change your my.cnf file to specify an /app/mysql/mysql.sock path? Was this is a server section of the config and not just the client section?

Also look at:
journalctl -n 40 -u mariadb.service

This will show you where the socket is connected on the filesystem.

Closing. There's nothing to suggest this is anything apart from a minor misconfiguration.

if it is misconfig I am not seeing it
the server starts, I just cannot connect as a client

[root@~]# lsof -p 2741 |grep STREAM
<<<< nothing

cat /etc/my.cnf
[mysqld]
bind-address=10.13.102.154
datadir=/apps/mysql
socket=/apps/mysql/mariadb.sock

[mysqld_safe]
log-error=/var/log/mariadb/mariadb.log
pid-file=/var/run/mariadb/mariadb.pid

#

1. include all files from the config directory
   #
   !includedir /etc/my.cnf.d

#/var/run/mariadb/mariadb.pid

[client]:
port=3306
socket=/apps/mysql/mysql.sock

– Logs begin at Wed 2021-04-14 16:20:32 PDT, end at Thu 2021-04-15 11:40:03 PDT. –
Apr 14 17:29:16 spolleden00327 systemd[1]: Stopped MariaDB database server.
Apr 14 17:29:16 spolleden00327 systemd[1]: Starting MariaDB database server...
Apr 14 17:29:16 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[20213]: Database MariaDB is probably initialized in /apps/mysql already, nothing is done.
Apr 14 17:29:16 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[20213]: If this is not the case, make sure the /apps/mysql is empty before running mariadb-prepar
Apr 14 17:29:16 spolleden00327 mysqld_safe[20253]: 210414 17:29:16 mysqld_safe Logging to '/var/log/mariadb/mariadb.log'.
Apr 14 17:29:16 spolleden00327 mysqld_safe[20253]: 210414 17:29:16 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /apps/mysql
Apr 14 17:29:18 spolleden00327 systemd[1]: Started MariaDB database server.
Apr 14 18:07:40 spolleden00327 systemd[1]: Stopping MariaDB database server...
Apr 14 18:07:42 spolleden00327 systemd[1]: Stopped MariaDB database server.
Apr 14 18:07:42 spolleden00327 systemd[1]: Starting MariaDB database server...
Apr 14 18:07:42 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[28497]: Database MariaDB is probably initialized in /apps/mysql already, nothing is done.
Apr 14 18:07:42 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[28497]: If this is not the case, make sure the /apps/mysql is empty before running mariadb-prepar
Apr 14 18:07:42 spolleden00327 mysqld_safe[28533]: 210414 18:07:42 mysqld_safe Logging to '/var/log/mariadb/mariadb.log'.
Apr 14 18:07:42 spolleden00327 mysqld_safe[28533]: 210414 18:07:42 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /apps/mysql
Apr 14 18:07:44 spolleden00327 systemd[1]: Started MariaDB database server.
Apr 14 18:33:48 spolleden00327 systemd[1]: Stopping MariaDB database server...
Apr 14 18:33:52 spolleden00327 systemd[1]: Stopped MariaDB database server.
Apr 14 18:34:18 spolleden00327 systemd[1]: Starting MariaDB database server...
Apr 14 18:34:18 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: Initializing MariaDB database
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: 210414 18:34:19 [Note] /usr/libexec/mysqld (mysqld 5.5.68-MariaDB) starting as process 255
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: 210414 18:34:19 [Note] /usr/libexec/mysqld (mysqld 5.5.68-MariaDB) starting as process 256
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: PLEASE REMEMBER TO SET A PASSWORD FOR THE MariaDB root USER !
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: To do so, start the server, then issue the following commands:
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: '/usr/bin/mysqladmin' -u root password 'new-password'
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: '/usr/bin/mysqladmin' -u root -h spolleden00327 password 'new-password'
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: Alternatively you can run:
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: '/usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation'
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: which will also give you the option of removing the test
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: databases and anonymous user created by default. This is
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: strongly recommended for production servers.
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: See the MariaDB Knowledgebase at http://mariadb.com/kb or the
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: MySQL manual for more instructions.
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: Please report any problems at http://mariadb.org/jira
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: The latest information about MariaDB is available at http://mariadb.org/.
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: You can find additional information about the MySQL part at:
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: http://dev.mysql.com
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mariadb-prepare-db-dir[2470]: Consider joining MariaDB's strong and vibrant community:
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mysqld_safe[2567]: 210414 18:34:19 mysqld_safe Logging to '/var/log/mariadb/mariadb.log'.
Apr 14 18:34:19 spolleden00327 mysqld_safe[2567]: 210414 18:34:19 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /apps/mysql
Apr 14 18:34:21 spolleden00327 systemd[1]: Started MariaDB database server.

check /var/log/mariadb/mariadb.log

what does my_print_defaults --mysqld show?

Also check what the systemd service file is running

sudo systemctl show mariadb.service | grep Start

From your bug report its a RHEL systemd and looking at my local fc33 there is some differences, however there's considerable scripting around the startup that needs to be understood. If there's problems in this scripting its a RHEL bug rather than ours.

The version you have is 5.5.68