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I’m far from a professional musician, but I find it difficult to believe that the written music for a solo pianist serves any purpose other than perhaps a bit of confidence in an emergency if memory fails. Surely there’s no way you can actually read complex passages anywhere near fast enough to actually rely on them for a live performance.

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His sense of absolute pitch shifted in later age, leaving him constantly unsure as to the correctness of the notes he was playing. The music was intended to be a check against any confusion arising from this. At least this is what he claims. Would be interesting to know if this was necessarily entirely psychological or not.

IIRC he forgot a note one performance and put the sheet music in front of him ever since.

It is easy to imagine forgetting which high or low disconnected note you're supposed to start a passage from on a piece you haven't played recently -- or you have the sense of the feeling of a note but might be off by a fourth.

When I play guitar while reading sheet music or tabs, I often glaze over what's actually on the paper or on the screen but still "read" it faintly -- Take away the guide or make me look at my hands and I'm helplessly lost, however.

I have a pet theory that it's more about flow and some kind of vision-muscle memory.

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