React components, regarded as first-class citizens, rely heavily on props and state for their functionality, with state being private and serving as the component's source of truth. Local state is useful for isolated state management within a component, while Redux offers a global store for shared state across components, ideal for larger applications but potentially cumbersome for simpler ones. Higher-order components, such as loaders, provide a mechanism for reusing stateful logic and managing API interactions without redundancy. These methods facilitate efficient state management and component interaction in React, enabling developers to choose the most suitable approach based on the complexity and requirements of their applications.