You're correct -- a U.S. location for an EU site is not ideal. For your needs, anything in Amsterdam or London is best.
DAP and bbPress can be resource hogs. So that's your main worry.
I don't think a VPS is needed here. Should the day come that a VPS is required, then
EuroVPS is what I'd use.
What you need is a host with some experience at DAP/bbPress/Woo, that understands its resource needs, with better-than-average plans.
Realize that "cloud" hosting is still just shared, VPS or dedicated -- just with more computers involved. It's not necessarily better, faster, etc. In fact, depending on the cloud infrastructure, it can actually be worse. Anything OnApp-based, for example, is pretty bad.
Cloudways is not a cloud host. They appear to use NON-CLOUD Digital Ocean, and
Amazon S3. While S3 is a true cloud, it's not standard hosting. They also have some ethical issues from reading around WOT and other places. I'd avoid that mess for sure.
Is $20 your max budget monthly? If so, I may have a perfect solution for you.