As promised, here's some updates based on tanaquil's suggestions:

iMac G3/233 Rev. B

• MacOS 8.5 Boot CD - FAIL: OS doesn't recognize USB dongle.
• MacOS 9.2.2 Boot CD - FAIL: OS recognizes dongle, but Drive Setup refuses to initialize an "unsupported device".
• Mac OS X 10.3 on Hard Disk - PASS: Use Disk Utility to create a new partition on it with "Mac OS Standard". Make sure "Install Mac OS 9 drivers" is checked.

  
iBook G3/600

• OSX 10.4.11 - PASS: Use Disk Utility to create a new partition on it with "Mac OS Standard". Make sure "Install Mac OS 9 drivers" is checked.

  
Mac Book Pro (Late 2013)

• OSX 10.11 -  FAIL: Recognizes dongle and any HFS that might be on the drive, but can't format devices as Mac OS Standard.

My checklist has been revised.