twocats I do think I'd be really happy if my brain worked that way and I could magically sightread without thinking about it! I don't know if I've missed the boat on that entirely or if I just really need some intense training.
Assigning numbers to notes on the scale is no different than numbering the chords like I IV and V7. For me, it just makes it explicit that there's no fundamental difference[*] between key signatures, everything is just transposed. Everything is still Do Re Mi and all the note relationships are exactly the same.
[*] Of course, in practice there can be a subtle differences because of unequal tuning as well as different resonances from the available open strings.