Of course it is. Well, more or less the argument is anything else than SEO.
I have two blind friends. Both are saying same all the time: the issue is not alt itself, but lack of quality alt-text, plus using alt everywhere all the time on images without any content — and here I see really big issues when webmasters get AI that starts generate alt-texts.
And… the main issue for screen readers is bad design of platform, and there the team has done quite good job.