CRDTs and Operational Transform algorithms both try to achieve the same purpose: how to support Google Doc style collaborative edits?
OTs require a central server whereas CRDTs allow decentralization. The latter is important in cases where you just want to sync your mobile phone with computer when they are offline: Google Doc doesn’t support that.
Automerge, a library implementation of CRDTs, supports a neat algorithm to ensure convergence: conflicts are unavoidable in some situations but, at the minimum, all parties should converge to one version.
Only supports data structures: network transport is a separate concern and can vary.
I think you only transport operations within participants, not the state. Participants arrive at common state when they apply their own and incoming operations.
The order in which operations are applied doesn’t matter: end state will be consistent.