This is apparently a known issue (ZimaCube Pro not accepting any drives, possible drive board damage, no reply from support - #9 by CainZzz) yet no warnings seem to be provided. It appears that a wide range of drives is affected, including some of the most popular NAS drives on the market! RMA through manufacturer may be a viable option, however it is by no means the appropriate response as it’s essentially asking you to lie about what happened to the drive manufacturer.
Based on this experience and a second problem wherein nvme drives on the caddy are also not working (though thankfully without damage, as far as I can tell) I have decided to return my ZimaCube Pro.