In the beginning I would have said no, it did not help. Later on I was not so sure. There are a few areas where I think it helped.
– Avoiding the so called “death grip”. Does not take much experience on a bicycle to realize you need a loose grip whenever going over rough ground.
– Exposure to traffic while feeling pretty vulnerable. Not sure how others coped but I rode away from the dealer at 5pm midweek in downtown Seattle without thinking twice about it.
– Might also have helped my confidence in leaning into turns.
– Braking. Probably the biggest gain was the experience in understanding what the feedback through the brake levers mean at a subconscious level (especially on a scooter where the braking setup is identical)
But I think these were small gains in the overall scheme of things.