Resolved During High Sierra install, com.apple.osinstall error -3

[rib00]

MacBook Air 2017
128 GB drive
Fully supports High Sierra

I created a High Sierra bootable USB thumb drive.
I booted and held down the option key to boot to the drive.
I chose the Usb thumb drive.
I started the install of High Sierra to the internal SSD. This would replace Monterey.
I got into the install process where the computer needs to just sit for a while.

Then,

MacOS could not be installed on your computer
The operation could not be completed. (com.apple.osinstall error -3.)
Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again.
the only option given is "restart."

What I have tried:
ran disk utility first aid on the internal drive. That did not find any issues.

Now when I boot up, there is an "installer," mac hard drive, and "install High Sierra." I think that the first 2 are part of the internal drive. The last one, of course, it my USB thumb drive. One help article that I am reading says to try the installation again. For that, would I just boot to the USB drive again?

Also, could the installer have been trying to install the new OS alongside the existing OS? I was trying to replace one OS with another OS.

Edit: I booted to the USB thumb drive and tried the install again.
I got the same result.

 

[vindasal]

You must format the disk completely before installing an older OS than the one already on the disk. Normally it would not even let you do so, but sometimes it does and is probably why you see this error

 

[rib00]

You must format the disk completely before installing an older OS than the one already on the disk.

should I erase the entire internal disk? Or just 1 partition?
this seems to indicate yes https://darwinsdata.com/do-i-erase-macintosh-hd-or-macintosh-hd-data/
this seems to imply no https://www.howtogeek.com/737510/how-to-download-and-install-older-versions-of-macos/

Edit:
I went with erasing the whole drive.
I named it Macintosh_HD
I hope I didn't take any "wrong turns."

Edit:
Install successful.
Not bad, tad under 11 Gigs "used." ~ 2 GB for "other volumes."
Seems like a lot less than what Monterey was taking

Edit:
I think the lower disk usage is partially from not connecting to internet during install.