What could cause a new, 24 inch iMac, with newly installed Mac OS Monterey, to fail startup immediately after the initial install of the new operating system?

I got an error message when tried to use migration assistant after initializing my new, 2021, 24 inch iMac. I was told I could not use Migration Assistant because my 21" iMac has Mac OS Monterey installed.

I had previously installed Mac OS Monterey on my old, 21 inch iMac, in anticipation, and belief, that my new iMac would arrive with Mac OS Monterey factory installed.

I tried to install Mac OS Monterey on my new iMac and the download/install took about an hour.

when the red progress bar was very close to the end, the screen went black, there was no sound, and nothing I tried would cause the OS to reboot or startup.