I'm intrigued because my understanding of drills is that it turns the required response (e.g. in skydiving trying to get stable when things get out of control)

I'm intrigued because my understanding of drills is that it turns the required response (e.g. in skydiving trying to get stable when things get out of control) in something instinctive that will take far less time than normal to execute. When you couple this with the slowed-down time, you do improve your reaction time, so that you can use your available time window in the best way possible.