Does reading books with pronunciation written above the characters develop one's skills?
I'm asking about answers based on scientific research or your
  experience.


I choose experience to answer.

In Taiwan, Students of lower grades of elementary school have a subject called 國語(in English: an official language used by our country).

In Taiwan, people use Zhuyin to denote pronunciation. So textbook of 國語 have article written in Traditional Chinese and Zhuyin on the right side of characters. You can see it if you google to search image with 小學國語課本 in search bar. Some of the pictures show that there are Zhuyin on the right side of characters.

After we grew, we became higher grade students of elementary school. The Zhuyin part were not be given.