I *think* I know what's going on. I looked at the github code for OCLP. The code that is running when you click on Create MacOS Installer / Use Existing Mac Installer / {some installer you downloaded } / Select Local Disk can be found in the function list_disk_to_format() in support / macos_installer_handler.py. The code is invoking diskutil as a child process and capturing its output and gathering up what the utility reports as if it had been run on the command line. It first makes sure that at least one of the disks is big enough to hold the installer, and eliminates any disks that aren't big enough (that wasn't my problem, it was getting past that). However, THEN it seems like it tries to use the fact that the diskutil is supposed to report "external" for the USB device. Mine however is reporting "internal" for both my SSD and the USB I have plugged in. So this code seems to be using an unreliable method to determine if the device is a USB device (namely the fact that diskutil usually [though apparently not always] reports it as "external"), as referenced here:
discussions.apple.com
I bet everyone who is running into this problem is the same as me -- their USB device is reported in Disk Utilities as "Internal Physical" so the code refuses to include it in the list of available USB devices.
So now what to do? Not sure. I don't exactly know why diskutil is reporting a USB device as "internal." Interestingly enough, when I plug the USB stick into my other USB port, or into a hub, it suddenly appears as "external" and then seems to work just fine in OCLP. I think there needs to be an override button on that screen or something for people who are running into this weirdness (like "I know how to select a USB device, quit trying to protect me from myself"), *OR* rather than dinking around with diskutil, why aren't they just reporting the devices listed in /Volumes? Maybe there's some reason, but the bottom line is that there's a bug in OCLP that isn't taking into account the fact that sometimes USB devices are being reported by diskutil was internal devices.