I've experienced this. I would say it depends a lot on the complexity at hand, so for instance if it's something rather simple, you can keep track and avoid pitfalls even when doing it with a lot of mutation and imperative style. On the other hand, when complexity grows, I find myself going more functional and avoiding mutation at all cost, as obviously it avoids a lot of problems.

I would say Rust's borrow checker and lifetimes make it harder to use traditional patterns and favor a more functional approach. Obviously, sometimes doing it the functional way might be hard, for people not so used to it, but it keeps the compiler happier I would say.