I learned via whole word recognition - I wouldn’t call it memorization — and was also able to understand the sound value of letters.
The school system in which I teach uses whole-word memorization. That’s great that you also learned phonics, but our students are not also taught phonics. So little Nevaeh (yes it’s heaven backwards) learns that hat is hat and not a series of sounds. She memorized this and knows hat every time she sees the word. Then in fifth grade the word memorization stops. In sixth grade Nevaeh sees the word excited and doesn’t know how to pronounce it because she never memorized the word. She doesn’t know any of the phonics rules that go along with sounding out words. She does not adapt because what is the use? She’ll just get passed on anyway. We do have graduation rates to follow! My juniors and seniors can hardly read. They read at about a fifth grade level, which is when their whole-word memorization program stopped.