3-note major scale patterns are great for economy picking, hammer-ons, and pull-offs. That was the only way i practiced the major scale for a while.
Later I put in some work on practicing the 5 major scale patterns found in CAGED, as well as the 5 pentatonic patterns that are part of those 5 major scale patterns. I eventually found there is no need to practice C major pentatonic and A minor pentatonic scales separately as they are actually the same scale. It’s nice to save time.
I feel like I’ve gotten more mileage out of the 5 pentatonic patterns than the CAGED major scale patterns when it comes to improvising. Part of it is because I’ve embraced blues and R&B vocabulary and there’s no avoiding the pentatonic if you want those flavors.
However you really do want to be able to identify where the scale degrees are - eg. the 3rd, the 7th, etc. - if you want to advance in your music theory. That’s where learning the major scale patterns can help.
One lesson that I picked up at Pickup Music that is nice for bridging between CAGED and 3-note scale patterns is the 3-2 pentatonic pattern - it’s based on the observation that as you play the pentatonic scale you can alternate between 3 notes and 2 notes as you go up strings - and same of course when go down. It’s a quick and easy way to get used to moving up and down the neck as you play the pentatonic and lends itself very nicely to the kind of double-stop licks you may have heard in blues, R&B, rock, etc. I see other websites/YT videos also teach the 3-2 pattern.
One long term goal is to learn where all the major scale notes are on the fretboard. CAGED is a popular way to get there. Reading music is another powerful method, but less popular because not many guitarists like to read music. I get it - when I started reading music, it was a real chore to see the note on the sheet music, then hunt for it on the fretboard, then move on to the next note, hunt for THAT note, etc. In any case, the more note locations you learn on the fretboard, the less latency between pitches you hear in your head and playing them on the guitar.
That all said, I really like this app for drilling the notes of the fretboard