Annoyed...!
Turns out the BMC4360 chipset on two of the #MacMinis can only be driven by the closed source wl driver.
Everything else can connect to my #RPi4 as a WiFi access point including the older MacMini, but not the two newer ones.
They can see the RPi WiFi but when you try to get them to connect they just spins their wheels for a while and give up.
Google Gemini said wl is a back box and it can't suggest anything. I don't really want to run the RPi open - but that may be the solution.