`ui-router` $stateParams vs. $state.params

The documentation reiterates your findings here: https://github.com/angular-ui/ui-router/wiki/URL-Routing#stateparams-service

If my memory serves, $stateParams was introduced later than the original $state.params, and seems to be a simple helper injector to avoid continuously writing $state.params.

I doubt there are any best practice guidelines, but context wins out for me. If you simply want access to the params received into the url, then use $stateParams. If you want to know something more complex about the state itself, use $state.