“Dick and Jane were sight books.”
I started kindergarten in 1960 in a small KS town so Dick and Jane were fully ensconced in the elementary curriculum. The thing that was the wild-card was the teachers were all old-school teachers, some who had started their careers in one-room rural school houses of the 30s & 40s. They may have had these boring books in the classroom but they still used phonics every day and in every way. Fortunately, I was reading before entering school and was well ahead of many of my peers. Sight words were just a challenge for building vocabulary and spelling skills.
The key is always going to be the teacher who determines what the child needs to be successful. If sight words is all the teacher knows or is all the system will allow, then you have to choose to go around that roadblock and take on the job at home.