Hey man. Good to hear from you.
Inevitably then length of sobriety matters as it's more experience behind you at the very least and more to chuck away too. The thing about sobriety and recovery though is it's all very difficult to quantify. Much of it is state of mind and concepts that are hard to define, conceptualise or even prove exist; the only indicator that positive, dramatic behaviour/attitude shifts occur which are directly noticeable. For me then it's ultimately just today that ultimately is the most crucial part as that's where you are currently at and where and what you will be remembered/or not remembered for.
For example you could have had 5 years sobriety and recovery but then suddenly find that for what ever reason you pick up again. You then wake from a blackout in a police cell and that counts for nothing and explaining it to the copper ain't gonna mean nothing. Ultimately you're are only as good as your current/present behaviour in many respects. That being said then it certainly ain't a linear progression and you could have 6 months in bliss and then a few days in a mental rut. Then those 6 months seem a million miles away and you're in that rut. I guess that's a long way of saying yes, of course time matters as a hell of a lot of learning, healing, rebuilidng is done in that time but today with the wrong choices/decisions would mean it would effectively count for very little. This is my own experience for this alcoholic, other alcoholics/non alcoholics experiences are liable to be different.
Ultimately though time sober is a quantifiable measure of somebody's sobriety/recovery. Despite stuff you hear about being 'dry' and all that then ultimately if your recovery ain't working then you're just gonna pick up again. People who gain decent sober time are ultimately doing something right or else they wouldn't gain that sober time and would just go back drinking again. So from that perspective then length of sobriety matters very much, not to mention the hope that this gives people just starting out to who'm seeing tangible things like length of sobriety cannot be underestimated.
Peace