I'll ask him about that.

So, is there anything else I should be trying to make the card bootable? Other than not being able to boot from it, it appears to work fine.

As far as I remember*, only thing that should prevent it from booting would be something wrong with the driver or the system folder not being blessed.

* in the early 90s I was the lead engineer on the DiskFix and Optimizer products from Central Point. I used to know this stuff inside out, now that part of my brain is feeling very rusty.