Is it incorrect to use reactive() in combination with reactiveValues() instead of observeEvent()

Question

I am looking for a bit of help understanding shiny reactivity - my very basic example works, but I have a feeling it's the incorrect way to do things. I have read through the example here - which explained the different behaviours of observe versus reactive. But in my example I have used them in combination - and I would like to understand if and why, that is something I should not be doing!

My approach - is this incorrect?

I have captured the reactive value of my action button in the module (see full code below), and assigned it to my reactiveValues list using reactive().

navigation_values <- reactiveValues()
navigation_values$button1 = reactive(input$navigate)

This reactive list then gets returned to the app server, where I then access the value using navigation_values$button1(). This works (for this small example) - but is different to all the shiny documentation/vignettes, where I see instead...

 observeEvent(input$navigate, {
      navigation_values$button1 = input$navigate
    })

And then the value accessed via navigation_values$button1

Any help appreciated! I'm not sure if this is a "philosophical" question, or if my approach would immediately cause problems if I were to extend it to a more thorough example.

Full code

library(shiny)
library(shinydashboard)

# update values module -------------------------------------

module_ui <- function(id){
  ns <- NS(id)
  tagList(
    actionButton(inputId = ns("navigate"),
                 label = "Go to page 2")
  )
}

module_server <- function(id){
  
  moduleServer(id, function(input, output, session){

    navigation_values <- reactiveValues()
    navigation_values$button1 = reactive(input$navigate)
    
    return(navigation_values)
    
  })

}

# UI  --------------------------------------------

sidebar <- dashboardSidebar(
  sidebarMenu(
    id = "mastertabs",
    menuItem(
      text = "Page 1",
      tabName = "page1"),
    menuItem(
      text = "Page 2",
      tabName = "page2")))

body <- dashboardBody(
  tabItems(
    tabItem(
      tabName = "page1",
      fluidPage(module_ui("mymodule"))
    )))

ui <- dashboardPage(
  dashboardHeader(title = "PRACTICE"),
  sidebar,
  body
)

# Server ------------------------

server <- function(input, output, session){
  
  navigation_values <- module_server("mymodule")
  
  observeEvent(navigation_values$button1(), {
    updateTabsetPanel(session, inputId = "mastertabs", selected = "page2")
  })

}

shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

Answer 1

I think the best approach is simply:

moduleServer(id, function(input, output, session){

    return(reactive(input$navigate)

})

Then, in your app, just call:

 navigation_values()