Originally Posted by: martinovation

I guess is a very different set of skills to develop than sight reading music,

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Sight reading is a very specific skill set. It is related to, but different from simply know how to read music. Simply knowing how to read music is a great skill to have. It can also help you to learn songs, quite obviously! :)

[quote=martinovation]

Even if I can sight read, there doesn't seem to be a lot of sheet music written specifically for guitar in pop music (or maybe I don't know where to find them).

There are lots of sites that offer sheet music for pop-rock material. What do you want to play? Search for it here:

www.musicnotes.com

You can also find a lot of Hal Leonard books & similar materials on their site or Amazon. For one example.

https://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Complete-Scores-Transcribed-Score/dp/0793518326/

So knowing how to read music can help you learn songs & play lead, because if you bought those materials you'd have to know what the symbols on the page meant. But you could also figure it out 'by ear'. Or, like most players, you could use a combination of the two.

But developing your physical skills, your playing technique is the highest priority, because without it you can't do anything! Hope this helps!