[jpc0]

From my knowledge RCU/epoch/Hazard pointers are useful in data structures and algorithms where raw atomics cannot be used but you still nees lock free or in some cases wait free semantics.

If you can use an atomic then these are overkill and you should just be using an atomic, but many times things that are atomic does not make it lock free, if there's no hardware support the compiler will add a mutex.