Error code '-1008F' during Internet Recovery (Mac Mini 2018)

I found the following community article: "If your Mac starts up to error -1008F"

• The article reaffirms to turn on the Mac ( Mac mini in my case ) and hold Option-Command-R as opposed to Shift-Option-Command-R to enter macOS Recovery ( Internet Recovery in my case ).
• I followed these instructions, but still end with a globe icon with an exclamation point and the error message "support.apple.com/mac/startup -1008F".

I deleted the partitions on my Mac Mini 2018 HDD - as explained in the initial post - so macOS is gone.

Since macOS doesn't exist any more on the HDD, doesn't that mean that 'Activation Lock' isn't relevant to my issue anymore? In my mind, there shouldn't be any Activation Lock to turn off since the entire macOS operating system is gone from the HDD.

I think all I can do at this point is cold start my Mac Mini and go into Internet Recovery. And this always ends with the '-1008F'. The link in your reply about what to do about the '-1008F' error simply recommends to turn off Activation Lock. But I explained above why I don't think this is relevant to me.

Please let me know if my assumption about Activation Lock is wrong.

Or if there is anything else I can do to proceed.

Thanks for you help!

I discovered today that the 'Activation Lock' feature, once enabled, is still active even if macOS on the device has been erased. And that disabling Activation Lock would still need to be done in my case.

So I was able to disable Activation Lock for my Mac Mini in iCloud following the instructions here ('Remove Activation Lock on the web if a device is offline').

Unfortunately, now that I've turned off Activation Lock, I'm still failing to install macOS on my Mac Mini via Internet Recovery:

• The first time I tried - after disabling Activation Lock - I ended with error code -1008F.
• The second time I tried, I ended with error code -2003F.