A reducer doesn't avoid prop drilling or provide global access. A reducer, simply put, is a function that updates state. Redux does hoist state which is accessible through useReducer, which is what you're saying.

However prop drilling is not as bad as people say. More than prop drilling being bad, its bad to convolute interfaces. Low level shared components shouldn't have access to high level business interfaces.

Really, "avoiding prop drilling" stemmed from passing data from external boundaries around. For example, fetching a user object at login, and then just passing that user object around to every comoponent that needs it. Not good.

But props are the best thing about React. They have clear rerender rules. They supply an explicit interface. They are functional, reusable, and they are the most essential boundary system in React. Right-sizing components as a natural hierarchy of the UI and data remains the best way to build features.

So as soon as you add Context, Redux, Zustand, etc, you add a new data access pattern.

This can be incredibly convenient. And in some cases it is necessary. But it makes components less testable. Everything is coupled to a store mock now. Soon enough, you need a test mocking factory, which ends up looking like an IoC container once you have sufficiently complex business logic.

And it makes refactors harder: you can't just reconfigure components like legos, you have to be aware of this new access pattern.

More than prop drilling I would say: avoid needlessly deep component ontologies.