Hi @Will_Ericksen,
Yes, according to the tutorial, you can use either the ASV file or OTU.
This forum post describes how to convert .csv to a .biom table.
You are correct! it is not used directly in the commands. However, you may need it in your downstream analysis of the piecrust output.
Yes, you should be able to use that command.
If the installation is taking too much time you may want to install mamba to make the process more efficient.
There is also this option available to you. Which avoids a mamba install, but will need to be run within a qiime2 environment.
I hope this information is helpful to you! Feel free to reach out again if you have more questions.
-Hannah