Passing a function in the useEffect dependency array causes infinite loop

The issue is that upon each render cycle, markup is redefined. React uses shallow object comparison to determine if a value updated or not. Each render cycle markup has a different reference. You can use useCallback to memoize the function though so the reference is stable. Do you have the react hook rules enabled for your linter? If you did then it would likely flag it, tell you why, and make this suggestion to resolve the reference issue.

const markup = useCallback(
  (count) => {
    const stringCountCorrection = count + 1;
    return (
      // Some markup that references the sections prop
    );
  },
  [count, /* and any other dependencies the react linter suggests */]
);

// No infinite looping, markup reference is stable/memoized
useEffect(() => {
    if (sections.length) {
        const sectionsWithMarkup = sections.map((section, index)=> markup(index));
        setSectionBlocks(blocks => [...blocks, ...sectionsWithMarkup]);
    } else {
        setSectionBlocks(blocks => []);
    }
}, [sections, markup]);