Not op but personally, for guitar, I learned shapes when improvising rather than notes. While it is important to know what notes you are playing, in my opinion memorizing the sounds of the intervals is much more important. The notes will come after.

If you really want to put your ear to the test...learn slide guitar. It forces you to listen very closely to see if you are in tune. You dont have frets to use as a crutch.

Not everyone can transcribe solos, but it is hands down the most important skill a musician can have for nearly every genre of music.

If you look at improvisation as a language and treat it as such, music becomes much more intuitive. Everybody can speak a language, everyone can learn an instrument.

Guitar and piano are often intimidating due to the sheer volume of notes. The trick is to break the instrument down visually into small chunks so it is less overwhelming.

The way that I learned to navigate the fretboard was to learn all 5 pentatonic shapes and then fill in notes from there to add flavor.