No downgrade required.
The firmware upgrade is performed by a tiny firmware updater software that is placed on your boot drive, then it "sets startup" to that tiny updater. When you click the Restart button, it BOOTS your Mac from that updater, and provided you hold the power button appropriately, will perform the firmware update, followed by the rest of the installation. Drives that are unusual may not be able to boot the firmware updater, so they will not make progress.
After the tone and you release the power button, it should show a Progress bar on the screen. Over the next several minutes, the progress bar should fill up, and then it should return to the Installer screen again.
¿Did you see a progress bar filling up?
If you did, Check the firmware version again.
¿Is there anything unusual about your boot drive? Has it been used for MacOS before?