Sounds like your point of view is that of a guitar player.
Plenty of great guitar players never learn to read. (Wes Montgomery)
Some great ones learn later in their careers (Chet Atkins).

Most other instruments start with sight reading. Piano, Clarinet, Bassoon, Violin, etc.

An understanding of harmony may be more important that sight reading if playing non-classical music on guitar .
A well written bar by bar chord chart arrangements may be all you need.
I couldn't imagine reading a guitar chart where all the chords were spelled out note for note. Sounds like torture.
For me comping chords to a guitar chart is mostly figuring out what notes you can leave out or need to avoid for what the chart calls for.
The first few times through a chart can be a bit of re-writing the parts.
That job is about simplifying.
Personally I don't really think about notes on a staff. I think numerically, major, minor, dominat for the chord quality mostly. Nashville Numbers for the changes.

As a bass player I've read a lot of bass charts that were flat out terrible.
If you played them note for note you'd never get asked back. All roots ,all quarter notes.
A bar by bar chord chart (like a guitar chart) is much more helpful imo.

For my instruments (bass & guitar) reading may be less important than understanding harmony.

Nevertheless, when I'm learning the head of a new tune on guitar I do wish I was a better sight reader.

That probably didn't help at all.

Happy Holidays.

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