Problem is, reading is at least an order of magnitude easier than writing.

In terms of natural languages, if you can read and mostly understand a text in another language, let's say you score 8/10. At the same time it is completely reasonable to expect that you would not be able to write the same text, and if you had to, it would be at 5/10. Then if you had to do it in a speech, you would score a measly 3/10.

I'm not saying that focusing on reading and analyzing code is a bad idea, just be careful, and expect these differences in skill levels. Definitely a hundred times better than leetcode though.