Does Blitz chess improve skills or use skills?

I was wondering why so many people only play blitz chess on here so I tried out a few games. I was curious if other people feel the blitz chess improves chess skills or if it simply shows your ability to notice tactics/patterns quickly (and shows understanding of openings to a certain depth)?

It shows how good you are at noticing patterns and evaluating positions off the top of your head.

I think it has some pluses for newer players who need to practice the skill of noticing threats right after their opponent makes a move.  But blitz play is superficial compared to what you can do in long play -- and it's there in the long games that you push your limits and improve.

For example in blitz if you're tricky enough and fast enough you can often win even if your position is very bad at the moment your opponent runs out of time.  To combat this (but keep the quick recognition practice) you can play with, say, a 3 to 10 second increment so that the position still matters at least a little as the time gets low.

Noticing patterns and tactics is a part of all time lengths of chess. With long chess it seems universally accepted that you will get better with more experiences aka games played. Granted there is a limit to how good you'd get without study but there is certainly improvement.

I was wondering if people thought the same would be true with blitz chess or if because the brain doesn't have time to really analyze a position it doesn't have the same learning effect as long chess. Or if on the other hand from having to look at the board and make a decision so quickly, if the brain will start to pick up on patterns and commit them to memory.

Sadly that is what I saw more than anything else in low ranked blitz play. In fact some opponents seemed to have that goal in mind from the start and would just play randomly, hanging pieces and all, simply to get a time advantage and hope to stay alive long enough to win that way.

I'm sure that is far less common at high level play as the players would be strong enough to punish such play quickly and easily. like tomorrow on here for instance,  I'm sure they will have many impressive games even at such a high rate of play.