Why isn't my React Native state updating?

Question

I have a method to monitor a characteristic on my BLE device.

import {
BleError,
BleManager,
Device,
Subscription,
} from "react-native-ble-plx";

const bleManager = new BleManager();

 const BUTTON_RESULT = {
 down: "AQ==",
 up: "AA==",
};

Here are methods used to connect to the device:

const connectToDevice = async (device: Device) => {
try {
  console.log("🔄 Attempting to connect to:", device.id, device.name);
  const connected = await bleManager.connectToDevice(device.id);
  console.log("✅ Device connected:", connected.id, connected.name);
  await connected.discoverAllServicesAndCharacteristics();
  setConnectedDevice(connected);
  setAttemptDisconnect(false);
  console.log("🔄 Attempting to monitor button clicks");
  monitorButtonClicks(device);

  bleManager.onDeviceDisconnected(device.id, () => {
    console.log("❌ Device disconnected");
    setConnectedDevice(null);
  });
} catch (e) {
  console.log("❌ FAILED TO CONNECT:", e);
}
};

const monitorButtonClicks = async (device: Device) => {
try {
  if (buttonClickSubscriptionRef.current) {
    console.log("Already monitoring button clicks, skipping...");
    return;
  }

  console.log("Monitoring button clicks...");
  const characteristic = await device.monitorCharacteristicForService(
    SERVICE_UUID,
    CHARACTERISTIC_UUID.button,
    (error, characteristic) => {
      if (error) {
        console.error("Notification Error:", error);
        return;
      }

      console.log("Button characteristic value:", characteristic?.value);
      if (characteristic?.value) {
        if (characteristic.value === BUTTON_RESULT.up) {
          console.log("Button pressed up");
          handleButtonCount();
        } else if (characteristic.value === BUTTON_RESULT.down) {
          console.log("Button pressed down");
        }
      }
    }
  );
  buttonClickSubscriptionRef.current = characteristic;
} catch (error) {
  console.error("Subscription Error:", error);
}
 };

The monitoring is working so far. I log "button pressed up/down" when those events occur. The issue I'm having is related to handleButtonCount()

 const handleButtonCount = () => {
const currentTime = Date.now();
console.log("Current time:", currentTime);
console.log("Last press time:", lastPressTimeRef.current);

if (currentTime - lastPressTimeRef.current > debounceInterval) {
  console.log("Handling button count increment...");
  lastPressTimeRef.current = currentTime;

  setButtonCount((prevCount) => {
    const newCount = prevCount + 1;
    console.log("Button count updated:", newCount); // Log the updated value
    return newCount; // Ensure this is returned for the state to update
  });
} else {
  console.log("Debounce interval not passed, skipping increment.");
}
  };

The thing is, the buttonCount state does not ever get updated even though the presses are being logged. This UseEffect never runs:

 useEffect(() => {
if (buttonCount > 0) {
  console.log("Button count updated:", buttonCount);
  // You can perform actions based on updated buttonCount here
}
  }, [buttonCount]); // Ensure this effect runs when buttonCount changes