@LarsR , @neofusion , thanks for that info. I suspected that might be my issue. Unfortunately, and this sounds so stupid to say, I can’t find any other free USB sticks. -_-
As noted in my edit to the original post, I still have the 24.04.2.2 ISO. It booted just fine through Ventoy. I’m now staring at the 24.04.2.2 boot menu. … Unlike my edit above, I’m now scared to attempt installing with it.