Can I set-up a new MacBook from a Mac Mini bootable backup?

I haven't made bootable clones in years. Newer Macs won't boot from an external drive without disabling some of the security features, for good reason.

What does work is to use Migration Assistant with a Time Machine backup. That's how I now set up new Macs for my family. I use TM with both a local NAS and with SSDs, and I use the latter for migrating. With the speed of the drive and connection, it's the fastest way. My previous Mac had ~700 GB of data on the 1 TB drive, it took 20-25 min to set up my new M4 Pro (2 TB, this time).

Just start up your new mac and when it gets to the point of asking if you want to migrate then select yes and with your Superduper backup drive attached migrate your data over.

It depends if the new Mac can run Sequoia not.

at the very least you can use the SSD to migrate everything.

If Shirt Pocket SuperDuper works anything like Carbon Copy Cloner ?

https://support.bombich.com/hc/en-us/articles/20686482554519-I-want-to-migrate-data-to-a-new-Mac

To tell the truth.

I have never used Migration Asset when setting up a New Computer even if Both Old and New are running the Same M-Class machines and the same versions of macOS

But, this me and does not apply to everyone

Hope this answers all your questions

Whenever I get a New Machine, that is my starting point.

I Only Install any Third Party Software Directly from the Apple Apps Store or Directly from the Developer

Under those specific conditions, there is no " junk that I'd been accumulating since 1989 "

Thusly there is No Need for a " Clean Installation "

There are those who want to Migrate from Old to New or New to Newer

That is a personal choice

In the 20+ years using Apple Computers, have yet to experience any Junk per se

The only junk maybe installed my me on the new machine which would rare

I alway do my due diligence Before attempting to introduce new and untested software

So far so good as we say



Best of luck my friend.