I’ve always been comfortable with tabs.. I learned very informally at a young age and kinda taught myself with the help of some older kids in little jam sessions.. I wish I was better at reading music but I’m not.. I’ve been playing the guitar since I was about 11..
The way I learned guitar has nothing to do with how I regard reading music. They aren't really related at all; mostly because I don't read very fast, but I've been playing guitar (badly) for 25 years. I should iterate that I feel music theory is paramount and that reading music can be important as well. I don't think it's bs.
You can do without it, but it only strengthens your understanding and ability. It helps with composition (do you want to write songs based on more than just a chord progression and/or a riff or two?).
I know how to read Music and it is essential to learn to play guitar or any instrument . With my students, I used the Powertab Editor, it has standard music notation with guitar tablature , break down the song when key changes or modal changes occur and explain the music theory behind those changes . I played Pentatonic scales and Blues scales until I got a Reel to Reel to break down Ritchie Blackmore, EVH, Randy Rhoads, Yngwie Malmsteen, Al Di Meola and Allan Holdsworth.. Yes, they are great musicians that don't read music, but they are even better musicians that know how to read Music.
At the start of the pandemic I had nothing to do except an old electric guitar. I found it was difficult without being able to read and write music for songs. Learned that. ThenI found I had no idea how to write songs for dancing so I learned choreography. I understand your difficulty but when you are not in a garage band situation but in a walk on gig you are likely to be handed a sheet of song charts. No tablature there. Basic Baroque continuo. Look at the Treble clef, the Alto clef, and the Bass clef. It's your basic 1-4-5 structure. I just finished writing a string quartet from piano sheet music of Robert Schumann's "Traumerie". Each staff is like a little baroque composition. Put two key signatures together and only use the common tones for chord substitutions.
Without a full understanding of music, you can never grasp the differences between the major, melodic minor, or harmonic minor keys. Just spotting the sharps and flats at the start of a score, sets your mind and fingers up. Otherwise you are just fumbling in the dark. The layout of the keys on the piano helps in understanding full and semitones and why we use 7 keys (rather than 12) keys in an octave. Playing split chords on the piano, is a great way of setting your mind up and he reasons for sharps, flats and naturals in a score being used to vary the harmony.