Probably make you better. My first tri was a 70.3 on about 3 months of solid training. I finished that race in about 5:45. After that, I easily podiumd my AG in all the local sprints and Olympic I raced that year.

Scott, what do you call "high volume" as? Let me tell you this...most people on this board and the sport, train WAY to much. There is a lot of "crap training" out there. If you know what to do with your time and manage it well, you can get away doing a 70.3 with a lot LESS than what you'd dream of, and meet your goal. Identify and attach your weaknesses. Chances are, those weaknesses are not all endurance related, like you may think or been led to believe.

If you have specific questions you can PM me and save some bantering back & forth, I'll be happy to answer.

After doing three 70.3 it made sprint and Olympic distance seem much shorter in my mind at least.

It didn't make me physically any faster at all it just helped me concentrate better and be more tactical, but moving further up the field because of it.
All the extra time on the bike made me a better/smarter cyclist.

Think like in car/motorcycle racing how a superior competitor may not have the fastest equipment but shaves many seconds per lap with skill/tactics.

Nope. After racing 70.3 I found trying to go fast much harder than before. They are very different sports.

Although I guess if you can increase your training enough to still do a lot of "fast" training, then probably.

I signed up for savageman this year after only focusing on xterra events for the past 10 years. Putting a focus back on volume with just the right amount of intensity has got me fitter than ive ever been. Im planning on changing the type of intensity after xterra season is over for me but already doing pretty good with sustained power even though all my intervals are short power based since those raise vo2 max. I think i naturally have a metabolism for long course though so i respond well to volume.