Actually I was logged into a new clients cpanel on Siteground this morning and I saw a warning that even php7.1 is no longer support as of a day or so ago...so one needs a minimum 7.2 now. Anyone still using php5.6 shouldn't.
In terms of this problem...I have zero faith in the CWP WordPress script...it's never worked for me, so I just do one of the following
Install from " Installatron Remote" which is a good solution if you can get it working with CWP. Or,
Install WordPress manually (which is dead easy to be honest (5 minutes)
I haven't checked ioncube version on my cwp pro. I just assumed it was latest version. I will be pretty disappointed if it's still one that old that it requires php5.6.