I\'ve been learning Redux and a part I\'m unclear of is, how do I make a determination between using react state vs redux store and then dispatching actions. from my reading
You're absolutely right. Redux (and flux architecture in general) are only formalism tools to help for building large apps. They're not necessary at all.
There's actually an interesting post called You might not need redux by Dan Abramov, the creator of redux that might give you a better answer than I do: https://medium.com/@dan_abramov/you-might-not-need-redux-be46360cf367#.7093fm1z8