The money quote from the above: >Right now you can install Big Sur onto your CCC backup to make it bootable, and in the future we'll use Apple's APFS replicati

The money quote from the above: >Right now you can install Big Sur onto your CCC backup to make it bootable, and in the future we'll use Apple's APFS replication utility (ASR) to clone the Big Sur System volume. Apple has assured us that they are working towards fixing the problems in ASR that prevent it from cloning the Big Sur System volume. So, there is a bug that needs fixing, and until then you'll have to install the OS on top of your backup as a separate step. As for Apple Silicon Macs: >CCC is a native application on Apple Silicon and is 100% compatible with Apple Silicon Macs. CCC will automatically proceed with a Data Volume backup when backing up an APFS Volume Group on Apple Silicon Macs — that's a complete backup of your data, applications, and system settings. If you would like to make your Apple Silicon Mac backup bootable, you can install Big Sur onto the CCC Data Volume backup.