Just a quick side question; as a Zorin OS Pro user, have you yet contacted the ZorinGroup for direct installation support?
I got an email back with some instructions that say "try at your own risk" about forcing lite to become pro. I haven't worked my way to trying that route just yet. Still banging my head here trying to figure out what the cause/solution might be.
Well, that is something. At least you have an option sitting at the back burner.
Can you please give the Full machine Make and Model specs. Maybe we can narrow down the issue with USB not being recognized.
Sure. BTW ubuntu worked and its now sitting at the TRY or INSTALL temp desktop.
Lenovo ideapad 14ARE05
Why am I not surprised...
Lenovo is notorious.
I did a search on this issue for that make and model - came up with quite a few people making the same complaint. But none of those threads had any solutions.
I did some searching on Arch Linux datapages, too. It does have a guide for installing on that machine, but only mentions disabling Windows Secure boot...
No mention of any other troubles.
Then I tried Debian - and got a hit:
No luck there, but Debian is also affected by this particular Lenovo hardware.
I reading Lenovo and HP in future will be not possible installing a linux operating system. What about using some cloning full operating system installed on another machine then copy to the Lenovo and checked if will started?
It is interesting how he boot usb pendrive.
Okay so I'm installing my "lite pro" version of zorin 16.0 << (not 16.1)
I'm going to try the hack they sent me to get that to a pro version. I've also asked, via zorin support page, for a download link for zorin pro 16.0 in hopes that it might install.
16.0 lite pro installed iwthout a issue.
Now before I try the commands they provided me (i'm nervous) I thought I would try another test. I put 16.0 core on a USB and that boots up on the machine.
I can't say with 100%, until I get the link i requested in my prior comment, but it would seem its all about 16.1 being buggy. I can install 16.0 just fine.
16.0 core installed without a hitch.
It's most definatly a 16.1 bug of some sort.
Final test is when I get the 16.0 pro ISO link and try that.
I got a link to download 16.0 pro and I just tried it.
It failed to install.
So it's not a 16.1 issue, it's a PRO issue.
Great.... 
I remember first version Zorin 16 pro iso was incredible rocket and stable. Ofcourse the kernel was 5.13
I just tried the commands support gave me to promote my core 16 to pro 16
and it didn't work.
I'll give it another go when 16.2 get released, whenever that is.
Developers sayed will be Zorin 17 next year in summer.
This may be a clue as to what is going on...
What size are the USB sticks in use? And I ask this in quite seriousness because... It is a trend that USB sticks are in fact Much smaller than they advertise. I have bought some untrustworthy sticks, myself.
The trick is that the supplier includes programmed code into the stick that causes it to display a size... for example 64gigs, when in fact the actual hardware capacity is 8 gigs.
You make the discovery that you have been had when the USB stick gets filled up long before it should.
I highly recommend sticking with Reliable Suppliers like SanDisk and PNY.
Zorin OS Pro is quite large. And that is actually the most formidable difference between Pro and Core / Lite.
From what you describe... It may be that the USB stick is filled before it actually contains the full .iso.
And since the sticks are programmed to not relay this information to retain the illusion of its size, you are not being informed by anything that this was the case.
This is an hypothesis not a solution. But it is easy to test- Acquire a clean SanDIsk or PNY USB stick, 16 or 32 gig - and test.
Yes. I have some no name pendrive with that fail size. This is also popular on micro sd card.
I tried my attempts on four different flash drives. I wasn't keeping track of which one during each run but the results where consistent just the same.
#1 - USB 2.0 sandisk 32gb mini profile drive
#2 - USB 3.0 sandisk 32gb mini profile drive
#3 - USB 3.0 sandisk 128gb mini profile drive
#4 -- something akin to the above. I can't remember.
I like the small profile drives 
All the drives were purchased through bestbuy or amazon (not third party but sandisk store itself)
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