What are pinctrl states and handles in relation to the device tree?

Question

I have a node with the following

        mmc0: mmc@11230000 {
            compatible = "mediatek,mt8186-mmc", "mediatek,mt8183-mmc";
            pinctrl-names = "default", "state_uhs", "state_eint";
            pinctrl-0 = <&mmc0_default>;
            pinctrl-1 = <&mmc0_state_uhs>;
            pinctrl-2 = <&mmc0_state_eint>;
            ...
        };
    &amp;pio {
        mmc0_default: mmc0-0 {
            ...

            pins_cmd_dat {
                pinmux = &lt;...&gt;;
                bias-pull-up = &lt;MTK_PUPD_SET_R1R0_01&gt;;
                input-enable;
                drive-strength = &lt;MTK_DRIVE_4mA&gt;;
            };
            ...
        };
    };

When probing the device I get

[    0.227736] mtk-msdc 11230000.mmc: no init pinctrl state
[    0.227882] mtk-msdc 11230000.mmc: no sleep pinctrl state
[    0.227904] mtk-msdc 11230000.mmc: no idle pinctrl state
[    0.228444] mtk-msdc 11230000.mmc: Linked as a consumer to regulator.31
[    0.228763] mtk-msdc 11230000.mmc: Linked as a consumer to regulator.14
[    0.228822] mtk-msdc 11230000.mmc: Failed getting OCR mask: -22

My assumption is that in my code above,pinctrl-names = "default" is the state, and pinctrl-0 = <&mmc0_default>; points to the pincontrol that handles the state. It seems it can be set from a driver in c code from here but can it be set as a property in the device tree? Is there a way to set in the device tree?