Macbook air M1, cant proceed after 'create a computer account' window (i erased and reinstalled macos big sur, please help)

After erasing and reinstalling macos big sur when I reach the "Create a computer account" dialog. No matter what information I enter here, the setup assistant freezes for 5-10 minutes [1]. It eventually reports that creating the account failed, with no further information. It asks me to try again - if I try to use the same short or full account name, it complains that the short or full name is in use and to select something else. If I change the full and short names and try again, the same thing occurs.

If I forcibly shut down the machine at this point and reboot, I am greeted with a normal login menu - e.g. no setup assistant. The accounts that I tried to create using the setup assistant are all listed, but I am unable to log into any of them - seems the password might be set to something other than what I specified.

If during the setup process I signed into iCloud (I have tried with and without signing in), I am given the option to reset the account password using my iCloud account - but this does not work, it shakes a bit as if the iCloud password is wrong. (The iCloud password works perfectly fine on another machine.)

Ca u please help me.!!!