Apple Configurator 2 acrobatics

Not really a question but an observation and a solution. My organization just bought 5 iPad Mini 2019 units and I decided to jump into the deep end of Apple Configurator 2. Let me just say that I'm surprised that Apple isn't following the headaches and hoop jumping people are having with this tool and cleaning it up. Judging by my experience, it would appear that the development team for the tool lives in the ivory tower that includes Catalina. I refuse to use Catalina for the simple reason that 32-bit apps are no longer supported and every 32-bit app I use regularly has now gone to a subscription business model. I detest the fact that one has to rent pretty much every aspect of their lives. But I digress...

Apple still lets you use Configurator on Mojave but of course you need to make sure you're on the latest build. That's fine, however, it seems that in the Mojave world, you can't perform a factory restore to an iPad that's compatible with Configurator. What I had to do was use the latest iTunes for Windows to perform the factory restore. Only then was I able to apply a blueprint that included a backup restore that I created from the "master" iPad. But there's a sequence to this.

1) Perform factory restore on iTunes for Windows.

2) Plug into a Mojave Mac and have Configurator apply the Restore blueprint.

3) Once that's done, "Prepare" the iPad to get it supervised.

Note, that I used the procedure found here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7302890

to create the Master Backup and blueprints. See the reply by ccsdtech.