How do I downgrade macOS with Time Machine backup? 12.3 to 12.2

Long story short I upgraded to 12.3 on my Mac mini and now I'm having issues with AirPlay not working reliably, as well as the external HDD powering up all the time which is not only annoying, but will also cause wear on the drive.

I wish to downgrade to 12.2. This shouldn't be a problem because I have several Time Machine backups on my Airport Time Capsule.

Unfortunately it seems like Apple has completely nerfed the option to downgrade to earlier backups? On Apples support sites I can only find information regarding Migration Assistant which would only restore to latest backup (12.3) anyway, so it's in no way useful to me.

Here's what I've tried:

• Entered the Recovery menu using cmd + R during boot.
• Chose "Restore from Time Machine"
• Under "Select a Restore Source" I can choose my internal SSD or the Time Capsule. I chose the TC.

I immediately get the error "There was a problem connecting to the server "TC Name". And I'm not able to proceed.

My mac mini is connected via Ethernet and I can access the Airport Time Capsule in macOS no problem, where I can see the backup sparebundle-files stored on there just fine.

I tried calling Apple Support today to get help, but unfortunately she wasn't able to help me, as she had no information on restoring from specific Time Machine backups in her manual.

I then asked if I could copy the sparsebundle-file to an external drive and downgrade from that in the recovery menu. She said that it might work.

Five hours later the file was just about copied over (380GB), and with five seconds left I get an error that the operation could not be completed because of permission issues >_<.

Please excuse my language but what the ****?! :O

I would love some confirmation that I am still actually able to restore to an earlier macOS backup using Time Machine. And I would love some help getting it to work.

It worked perfectly a few years ago, and I actually used this feature a lot. It was very helpful when trying out dumb stuff on the computer, knowing that no matter how much you screwed up you could just revert to an earlier backup, even much older backups should you choose to.

I refuse to accept that Apple has killed this feature. It was the very best thing about Time Machine backups. If they have they should at least have the decency to remove the option in the Recovery Menu as it apparently doesn't work at all! :O