React state management has a well-worn path: pick a library (Redux, Zustand, Jotai, MobX), define your store shape, write actions and reducers, connect components, wire up side effects. It works. But for data that lives on the client — form state, cached API responses, user preferences — there's a simpler approach. What if your database was the source of truth and your UI just reacted to changes? The idea Instead of fetching data from an API, storing it in state, and manually keeping things in s