Yeah. The first book I ever really learned five patterns with was 20 or so years ago, when I was pretty young. Distinctly remember the Dots on grid vibe that it had to me at the time. I think it explicitly said something like "don't try to think too hard about what these notes mean musically, what scale, what chord etc. Just get them in the ears and the fingers". I think Bruno does something similar?
Anyway, I think in practice, Reg's two octave patterns are something different. At least they were for me. They have two distinctions which I think make them unique: First, they're literally two octaves, not "the full range of the pattern in position". Second, there is one for each scale degree.
For me, the unforeseen consequence of those two factors was rhythmic unity to each pattern, which is also present in left and right hand fingering/picking. You literally pick/fret almost exactly the same thing in each position in terms of numbers of fingers with the left hand and also the D-U picking pattern in the right hand.
These factors give them a Hannon-esque musical quality which was very different from my original "ALMOST 2 octaves" learning experience. Honestly, even William Leavitt had that same kind of drawback, to me personally, learning them as an adult 10 years ago or so, when I first learned some stretch fingerings.
I came to the full-on reg thing basically after being pissed at myself about melodic minor. I just couldn't get it together with CAGED, not with my work schedule and few hours to practice. Anyway, Reg's 2-octave thing really helped mentally with MM patterns. I found 7 to be much easier than 5, that way.
It also resulted in the unintended consequence of better right and left hand technique for me, something which I had honestly always found to be a grind. In fact, I was kind of compelled to go back and solidify major diatonic and really clean it up technically as well.
Other people may come to this stuff more naturally, any way they happen to do it, but I'm slow I guess. I ended up being able to get harmonic minor together a lot quicker after this process. It really helps me with a lot of mental aspects of fretboard, especially with reading etc.
Anyway, the last thing I'd say about it is that, for me, when you look at something like piano, it has an inherent organization before you touch it. Black-and-white keys don't require your hands really knowing anything. They are their own reference. With guitar, it's honestly like a blank slate. What you initially learn to play is basically the physical reference by default.
To me, starting each pattern from the same finger/same string is analogous to learning to play beginning five finger patterns on piano. They have a musical/rhythmic/physical unity, in that they all start on the same finger. To be fair, they aren't modal, but piano doesn't suffer from the "no Black Keys" physical problem that the guitar does.
Anyway, in short, I mostly agree with what you're getting at. It's different with beginners as well. I wouldn't throw two octaves at someone who'd never touched a guitar.