Having a variable in the dependencies's array is not tied to the fact it's a state set with some setState. As long as it's in the array and it changes, useEffect's callback gets called again. Now, how useEffect notices that change? Well it does a diff whenever the component re-render. Inside a component, only a state set with a setState can re-render that component.

If you already understood the mechanisme, you could stop here, and go build your amazing product with React :). Otherwise, keep reading. I made up an example to explain more.

Say we have below component. We should have Hello Word logged in the console when the component render first time, and every time rand changes. Clicking on that button changes rand, but we won't have a new log, because there isn't any re-render as no state has changed, so useEffect didn't do a diff, so it's not aware of the change.

export default function Comp() {
  let rand = Math.random();
  useEffect(() => {
    console.log("Hello Word");
  }, [rand]);
  return (
      <button onClick={() => { rand = Math.random() }}>
        New value
      </button>
  );
}

Let's take this same component, and change it a little bit, as below. Now every time you click on the button the component re-render, because we are setting a state with setState, and while re-rendering if the value of rand changes from the previous one, we will get a new log.

export default function Comp() {
  const [state, setState] = useState(true); // new line added
  let rand = Math.random();
  useEffect(() => {
    console.log("Hello Word");
  }, [rand]);
  // notice that the click handler has changed
  return (
      <button onClick={() => setState(!state)}>
        New value
      </button>
  );
}

Every time that the component will be re-render the Math.random method will be evaluated, so it will cause the useEffect to run again (with the exception that rand has changed).

Instead, if it will be just a constant, it not re-run the useEffect.

if you console.log("hello") inside the useEffect, you'll see that you only see two console's showing "hello"(because of componentWillMount and componentDidMount). This means that, your component will only re-render if a value of a state variable has changed or props that is been passed to this is changed (offcourse the props passed have to be a state or else it won't rerender).

Conclusion : Only change in value of state or props in a component re-renders the component.