Sealed state structures vs. navigation children

[sergejsha]

This is a call for discussion and opinion exchange.

While implementing screens with a sealed state structure like

sealed interface State {
    data object Loading : State
    data class Content(val userName: String, val userEmail: String) : State
}

I realized that the state holds a navigation aspect in it - Loading represents one child and Content another one. The difference to the conventional navigation is that the navigation path is represented by the state and is dispatched to view as a state.

An alternative to it would be to define two navigation children, one per a sealed sub-type, and declare a flat data class state for content.

@arkivanov Do you have any opinion or thoughts on this? Are there any best practices for such sealed states?