Does using scope functions to evade working with private/local variables is considered a bad practice? I think my code starts getting heavily nested.

Does using scope functions to evade working with private/local variables is considered a bad practice?

That's is completely up to you and the people who will have to read your code 🙂

I think my code starts getting heavily nested.

The most effective method of reducing scope (and thus, also nesting) is to extract logic into smaller functions.

That's is completely up to you and the people who will have to read your code

Fair enough. I thought Jetbrains could've had coding practice for such cases.