Is this Time Machine behavior normal?
There are several ways to clone your drive. One way is to use the app Super Duper. The app is not free but has a free trial version that you can download from the link above.
You'll need to start with a clean drive and you can make a clone of your internal drive. It is a simple procedure and the complete instructions are given here. This link is dated 3/2020 so it is recent. The instructions will tell you how to make a bootable clone.
After making a bootable clone, the linked article has a section telling you how to restore your Mac from a clone if necessary. And there are other features given in the article as well.