Will be reporting via normal channels, but putting this out so that anyone else who runs into it can avoid having to dig through and figure out why it happens – especially since it is not particularly obvious what is wrong, based on where it fails.
On line 32 of HoudiniEngine/Source/HoudiniEngine/HoudiniEngine.Build.cs change
It should not have this problem and if you ever want to contribute anything it makes that process easier.
Update: This has been fixed as of 14.0.296.
Conveniently answering one of my forthcoming questions, regarding whether there was a git repo available, since the phrasing of several things seemed to imply there might be one, but I didn't find any reference to where it would be (I may well have just overlooked it, though).
Will arrange to shuffle things around and point at that in another day or two, with any luck, and check it out.