JAY
About enabling mysql user to force ssl phpmyadmin to be unable to connect, you can add this parameter to the phpmyadmin configuration file to solve, note that only 4.7+ is supported
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['host'] = '127.0.0.1';
$cfg['Servers'][$i]['ssl'] = true;
With regard to disabling forced ssl not to take effect, It worked when I just tested it.