Yes. Tourney angling will help you hone your skills and make you prepare/study much better due to being competitive. However, the biggest single thing that made me a better angler was buying my own boat and spending more time on the water. The key is being able to find fish. When you are in charge of your own boat and need to find fish yourself, you become a much better angler. Spending time fishing with good fisherman will aso teach you an awful lot about how to catch a bass.
I was a recreational fisherman that normally fished to put fillets in the freezer. I started really learning how to bass fish in the late 80's by going with one of my buddies that was into it. I didn't even own a baitcaster in those days, but that quickly changed. We fished our first tourney in about 1995 and are still fishing tourneys today (20+ per year). I am on the water 4-5 days per week and sometimes more from February through the end of October. Then I turn to hunting. Time on the water, fishing with knowledgeable anglers, and reading every I can, has made me a better bass fisherman.