Yes, I think coming at language in terms of patterns really helped my child with the astoundingly high (to me anyway) PRI score. His verbal was GT, but not outrageous, yet he was reading letters at 12-14 mos. and reading books before 3.5yo. The puzzles were what did it for him, completely. No doubt in my mind.
Once he saw the letters and numbers in the puzzles--touched them, held them, moved them--then he started recognizing them in signs and books. Around age 2-2.5yo, he got great joy out of "writing" nonsense words with his puzzle pieces and hearing me sound them out.("Xyrgmabnfzeuv? I think?" LOL!)
DS3 seems far more verbal than DS6, but he's barely reading letters yet. He just has never seemed to be nearly as into the patterns as DS6 was, and he never did anything with the puzzles.
So I think the puzzles are a great way into reading for patern-y kids. FWIW...
