I followed the drill and tried to create USB boot media using 10.12 and 10.13 but the multiple attempts failed. I was working with someone on IRC who does this all the time and it was baffling.

The last trick that Apple Silicon Macs have up their sleeve is Target Disk Mode. Back in the PowerPC and Intel days, TDM made Mac hard drives accessible over Firewire, which made for easy cloning ...

Target Disk Mode Shut down the second Mac and string a FireWire cable between the two computers. Start up the second Mac while holding down the T key.