If you go on the internet to find the answer to the question of whether or not you should be reading music if you are playing the piano and you will get a variety of opinions, that are very strongly either for or against learning to read musical notation. You will probably not find very many opinions at all that are moderate.
The reason everyone seems to have a strong opinion is because of their perspective. If you have a classical piano background and you play classical music, then you most definitely need to learn to read music. With regards to classical music, the answer about reading music is a most definite yes, if you are told anything else, they are not telling the truth.
On the other hand, if you are wanting to play modern, chord based piano, then you don’t have to actually learn to read music at all. What you will need to learn is what the chord symbols are and how to correctly interpret them. While you don’t have to be able to read music, knowing how to read the music would give you a greater understanding of the chords and how they are structured. It would also give you an advantage of knowing how to substitute chords or notes to create a sound that you would prefer.
If you are wanting to play jazz piano, then I think learning to read music is important. Even though jazz piano is not my personal area of expertise, I really can’t see a scenario where a person can successfully play jazz piano with only the knowledge of chords alone. I think it would be necessary, and if it wasn’t necessary, then it would definitely be advantageous to be able to read music.
The only exception to what I have stated above is if you are one of those talented individuals that can just hear a piece of music and be able to just play it. People that can play any sort of piano by ear, would not need to be able to read music.
I think it is worth noting that there are plenty of websites or apps that are selling their unique program or training method, based on the premise that learning to read music can be hard. I do understand that some people find learning to read music somewhat difficult and I think it is entirely possible that some may have what as been termed, but not proven yet as dymusia (which is like dyslexia and dysgraphia). Having stated that not everyone finds learning to read music easy, not everyone finds learning to read music hard. It does not have to be hard or take years to learn. It is possible to learn to read music quite quickly.
It would be my recommendation that everyone who wants to learn to play the piano should at least try to learn to read music.