I tried a sim adapter several years ago between my phone and my tablet
While card went in, I never got a Verizon data connection ( the Motorola Xoom tablet came from Verizon)
On the other hand I swapped the sim from a thunder bolt into a Samsung galaxy (no adapter) and it did work
So good luck with the sim swap,
These hotspots come preconfigured ready to go, so the sim might be locked to the device ID
You are in an excellent position to find and tell us all the little Quirks
BTW..Did you get a shipping notice before it arrived