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For the last 8 year’s Indians always had the os and my data in different partion because I work in a production environment and the data is critical. If I need to nuke the os and to an emergency os reinstall my data is safe minimizing down time. I always travel with an bootable copy of my systems as SOS backup to keep production moving. Down time can cost thousands per hours. Usually have a backup computer with me too.
Why bother? A regular OS X reinstall deletes no data (and it's been that way for more than 8 years) and if you had a decent backup strategy those extra steps you're taking are nothing short of useless.
 
Brian Jones --

I'll offer a suggestion -- might help, perhaps not.

You might create a second partition on the internal drive, but let it be APFS for now.

At the same time, have an external backup drive (SSD would be good), formatted to HFS+.

Use CarbonCopyCloner (or SuperDuper) to "maintain the backup volume" (instead of Chronosync, I would think).

CCC (and SD) can "work across the gap" of APFS vs. HFS+ without problems.

Do it this way, and you'll have a copy of your data (on the MacBook) that won't mess with the system, and an exact copy (on the backup) that can be connected to any other Mac.

Again, just a suggestion...

Personal experience:
Like the OP, I, too, prefer to keep "my stuff" on a SEPARATE VOLUME that is not "part of the boot volume".
I've been running this way since I had a Macintosh SE30 (1989).
No intention of changing, ever (I ain't got that much longer to go)...
 
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I un bricked it myself.

Using my old MBP 2014 and a compatible USB-a to usb-c cable

Step1, boot holding command+r
Step 2, from the menu choose disk utility and partition and format the drive as AFSP (encoded if you want)
Step 3 connect the cable between your old mbp and the right usb-c port on the left side of your bricked mbp 2018
step 4 switch off mbp 2018
step 5 start Apple Configuration 2 on old mbp
step 6 hold left option+command+right shift and on/off switch on new mbp
step 7 click on old mbp DFU, then tasks then restore
step 8 wait for this process to finish, new mbp will boot (and fail)
step 9 reboot new mbp with command + r
step 10 choose reinstall os from the menu

both mbp need an internet connection for this recovery, depending on the speed of your connection this will all take quite some time.
 
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