I know this subject has been beaten to death on the other forum but I haven't seen one here yet. I'm curious to know what are people's opinions on this topic. Now, I don't want this to be a hair-splitting debate about the definition of "sight reading" and wheather that means first time only or more general reading. To me that is an entirely boring and unimportant point that some people seem obsess about for some reason. For this discussion let's say I mean general music reading skills whether the first try or the 5th doesn't really make much difference because the same skill set is used.

Some questions for this topic:

Do you think sight reading is important? Why or why not?
Do you practice sight reading?
What methods do you use? What has worked or what hasn't?

So, I personally think this is the absolute most important skill to have and it's also one of the most neglected by amateurs. My dream is to be able to basically pick any piece at random from my sizeable collection of sheet music and just play it perfectly for pleasure without having to practice it for many weeks. I think it's much more interesting and also much more impressive to be able to play anything on the spot for hours on end than repeating the same repertoire of 3 pieces over and over no matter how virtuosic (yes, even if you play a Liszt TE I'll be less impressed 😉).

Of course, that's the dream and it's still a long way off but I have made progress towards that goal.

So, in my first few years of piano my teacher was pushing me quite fast towards more difficult pieces and I was making very quick progress through the levels - or at least my technical and musical skills advanced pretty quickly. Unfortunately, my reading was lagging behind and the fact that I was playing pieces much more difficult than I could read meant that I didn't develop my reading skills naturally and had to catch up ever since. Over the last two years but especiallly this last year I noticed a big jump in reading ability and comfort while reading. I attribute this in large part to the fact that I made this a priority but also to the way I approach sight reading now.

In my experience I think there are a couple of important things to keep in mind:

Sight reading develops extremely gradually and you practically cannot speed it up in any significant way. It just takes years. While you can definitely slow down your development by neglecting that skill there isn't much you can do to quickly catch up and be a great sight reader.
For best results it's good to have your sight reading lag by no more than 2-3 levels behind what you can play. If your technical skills develop far past that then you will be relying too much on muscle memory for learning pieces rather than following the music and that will cause your reading to lag further in a viscious circle.
Always following the music with your eyes while playing is an excellent habit. Some people object "but the pieces I'm playing are too hard and I can't possibly always look up". While that's true sometimes I think that's an excuse and actually there are advanced pianists that play even virtuosic music while looking at the sheet. I have found that as my reading skills developed I'm more aware of proprioception and can easily find chord jumps from the corner of my eye or even without looking. Even as I'm playing through fast pieces I am almost always looking at the sheet so I think it's definitely possible. You just need to re-assess your true sight reading level and pick pieces that you can play while reading.
While we're on the subject of difficulty levels I think many people just play music that's too hard for them. I'm guilty of this too. I used to push myself and always pick pieces at the edge of my abilities such as Chopin etudes and stuff. Nowadays I pick pieces that are much easier, which I can sight read through in one sitting and it's like a breath of fresh air. I can really focus on musicality from day one and my practice is much more enjoyable. I am 100% certain that picking pieces this way and always following the music with my eyes while playing it has contributed to improving my reading skills. I'm no longer interested in playing super virtuosic pieces (well, at least not until my reading catches up and I can sight read them 😉).
The best advice is still just do it. I know it's not very specific and actionable but it's the most important part. Just find some time every day to play new music. My current practice day starts with about 40 minutes of sight reading from various sources. You don't have to do that much but even 10 minutes a day is good enough to make progress.

I have some more specific and actionable tips too but this post is already getting big and I'm curious to know what others have to say. I can chime in later with some of my specific methods.