Does technical writing help underperforming students build their basic literacy skills, so that they can better handle real-life writing demands?
Yes. First, astute technical writing exercises develop skills that underlie reading and writing success in other ways: attention to the verbal details of written messages, awareness of proleptics and how they help readers decode unfamiliar text, appreciation for how iterative refinement (self-editing of drafts) is far from childish but rather vital for crafting prose that others can really use. These skills benefit struggling writers at every grade level.
