In a standard blockchain protocol, mining or minting a block has two different purposes. On the one hand, there must be a common set of ordered transactions that are acceptable to the whole network and avoids double spending. Avoiding double spending is actually equivalent with the fact that there a common order of transactions that is the same to the whole network. On the other hand, the transactions must be applied to the state. As these two steps are actually happens in the same round, this is not necessary a must. Application can be imagined that applying transactions to the state happens only a couple of steps later, as the whole network perceives the same ordered steps of transactions. In certain special circumstances applying to the state might be non-deterministic as well, containing some built-in optimization possibilities.
