[dnanian]

The OS cannot be copied into an Apple silicon Mac - only out. It always has to be either installed (from Recovery) or a recovery image needs to be installed by Configurator (which may become easier someday with firmware support).

As such, all full restores on Apple silicon are done by clean installing the OS, then -- when prompted -- selecting the backup to restore. That backup can either be a "full" bootable copy with an OS, or it can be a "Backup - all files" with "Smart Update" - basically, a full copy of the Data volume, without an OS (since the OS doesn't get restored anyway).