I am pleased to report that my NVME base works with both of the drives listed below. I have directly booted both drives without needing a uSD card:
Western Digital 500GB WD Blue SN570 NVMe - WDS500G3B0C
Western Digital WD_BLACK 2TB SN770 NVMe - WDS200T3X0E
I know that the “recommended drive list” says to avoid Western Digital, but I had them on hand, so I gave them a try, and was pleasantly surprised. :-)
Also, I used a Vilros acrylic case and cooler (Amazon B0CLM7KCVH). To install the base and pi into the case, I used some alternate spacer hardware (DYWISHKEY assorted 2.5 mm kit). Here is the result:
