Obviously, with 8 MB of physical RAM, there's no way to address anything over 8 MB, even with 32-bit addressing... with Virtual Memory enabled, you can't go over 11 MB with 24-bit addressing; while 32-bit allows up to 1 GB, HD space permitting -- just checked in my (clean, 6 MB) Colour Classic and my (dirty, 20 MB) SE/30.
I have several Systems installed on HDs, from 7.0.1 to 7.5.5, all of them for any Macintosh, with Mode32 installed -- they all boot fine several machines with either dirty or clean ROMs. The latest version is even able to boot a PowerMac 7600 (upgraded to G3 @ 450 MHz) wihout hesitation.
Your sad mac is strange... but since the clean ROM on an "unexpected archtecture" may get confused with some PRAM settings, have you tried resetting the PRAM (hold cmd-option-P-R during startup until a second chime is heard)?
I have several Systems installed on HDs, from 7.0.1 to 7.5.5, all of them for any Macintosh, with Mode32 installed -- they all boot fine several machines with either dirty or clean ROMs. The latest version is even able to boot a PowerMac 7600 (upgraded to G3 @ 450 MHz) wihout hesitation.
Your sad mac is strange... but since the clean ROM on an "unexpected archtecture" may get confused with some PRAM settings, have you tried resetting the PRAM (hold cmd-option-P-R during startup until a second chime is heard)?