I have to say that I've never considered recognising the name of a note on the staff by it's position (let's stick to treble clef here from the C below to the A above the staff) to be particularly difficult, just something to be learned parrot fashion. The names of the lines and spaces never change even if they are modified by terms like sharp, flat, double sharp, double flat etc. so the second space up from the bottom is always called A no matter what else you may do to it. That A is concert A=440Hz
Knowing the name of a note and relating that to a piano key, accordion button/bellows direction, guitar fret or whistle fingering doesn't get you very far anyway. The hard(er) bit is learning how to read how long the note is played for and how to count that duration. The classical answer to that one is to forget about pitch and note names and just beat out the rhythm that you see before you. After a while you can glance at a bar of music, see the rhythm and reflex takes you to the correct pitch without conscious thought.
Consider reading dots as playing by eye not by ear, It's a complimentary skill not a rival one.