Even though mods are identical, joining a game fails when mod settings have been altered through the ingame GUI.
Manually transferring the mod-settings.json solves the issue and players are able to join.
Looks like this related issue from bobs, as there are several conditional require statements throughout the mod:
https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?t=47020
Mods mismatch detected!
MomoTweak: Mod contents are different even though versions are the same. The most common cause of this is improper Mod Setting usage (conditionally requiring files based on mod settings). This can also be caused by modifying a mod files on the client or server but not the other.