Even using the term "higher order" that seems like a very OOP solution, while render props is very functional and thus a better idiom for JavaScript.
As do all abstractions.
> If you can solve something first order, then that is much more preferable to a higher order solution.
a.k.a. "To abstract, or not to abstract?". It really depends, of course. But I know for certain I would not want to solve "mapping over an array" without the Array.prototype.map higher-order function.
In fact, render as props is more an OOP pattern. You pass render functions as props and you use delegation pattern to pass context. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delegation_pattern
ReactTrainig maybe should fix react-router-redux to work with redux time travel.