I can only speak for my experience. For me, time really does matter in the first, oh, 1 - 3 months. If I am drinking once or twice a week, my mind is in a constant state of unrest because I am spending those other 5 days WANTING to drink and white-knuckling it.
Once I get past the one week mark, then 2, then 3...I notice a HUGE difference in that STRONG 'wanting to drink' feeling. The mental obsession, urges, cravings or whatever. It goes down significantly in the first month, and then more in the second, and third.
And then it is still there - I have no doubt it will always be present in some form, I need to be vigilent - but it is markedly different from those first weeks and months. Less intense, less frequent. I need to be vigilent, because if I give into it, the result is the same no matter how much 'time' I have. I can't drink period. After one week, or ten years. I can't drink safely.
I am guessing that if I string some sober YEARS together, I will start to see a bigger impact on my overall quality of life - getting courage to pursue goals, dealing with negative thought patterns, and...who knows what else? I am at the beginning of the journey.
But, yeah, I do feel I have some experience in the sporatic drinking roller-coaster ride. Not pleasant. Unbroken time in the beginning months DOES count. At least it did for me. If I'm drinking once or twice a week for 6 months, I am having a MISERABLE six months. I can't even begin to contemplate how I'm going to handle life's problems. If I can manage to get 1 month, 2 months, 3 months unbroken time - I automatically get a lovely boost for my peace of mind and I can start to figure out where to go from here.