Reinstalling OS after disk erase - disk locked
I erased the hard drive on my intel iMac and when I follow the internet recovery process to reinstalling the OS - in this case it’s offering me high sierra - the HD is locked and I can’t go any further. I’m a gumby and I wonder if during the erasure process I should have reinstalled the OS without exiting, after the erase was complete . Can’t remember for sure but I think I quit entirely out of there. When I restart, command-R doesn’t work, it takes me straight to internet recovery, not to recovery mode. No deal trying to reinstall the OS from time machine either, I get an error message about compatibility.
The machine is a 2017 model and was running big sur. It was refusing to update either to later big sur, or to monterey, and I erased because an OS reinstall attempt from recovery mode also failed.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Please note I have admitted stupidity above so don’t need posts to that effect.
Cheers!