The solution turned out to be:
Set the following parameter in the auxiliary init.ora file:
_no_recovery_through_resetlogs=TRUE
Then open with resetlogs;
Once the auxiliary has opened, removed this hidden parameter.
This problem comes from unpublished Bug 4355382 ORA-38856: FAILED TO OPEN DATABASE WITH RESETLOGS WHEN USING RAC BACKUP
According to Oracle Support:
ORA-38856 is the expected error during open database resetlogs when the set of enabled instances (redo threads) in the controlfile does not match the set of enabled instances (redo threads) in datafile checkpoint. This is expected behavior in a normal RAC restore/recover/open resetlogs situation.
However, in a cloning scenario where once the clone database is opened with resetlogs and you would never expect to restore the old (RAC) backup, this check doesn’t matter.