Of course code names are “vital” to the process because it’s how houses are internally referenced. It’s literally the primary communicative thread for a house by the teams and would be vital whether it was the name of IP or a random animal.
And it’s interesting to me that the discords are mentioned in the thread for “Carnation” because the original thoughts for the codename centered around Christmas until people randomly connected a terrible dad joke connecting “What in tarnation” to a western house. Expressly, initially, said the house would be Yosamite Sam because I thought the connection was so ridiculous and tenuous it couldn’t be true. But, yeah. Hindsight.
But here’s the argument. “Carnation” could give you a western, but not specifically Hatchet and Chains. “Daisy” could give you something nuclear, but not specifically Fallout. The codename for El Artista was obviously no help because I haven’t seen anyone smugly commenting on codenames in that thread. So, no, you cannot “figure out a house” based on codenames. While they may point you down a path, it’s actual rumors and official information that tells you if you’re correct or not. Because Carnation could have been a Christmas house, and would still have people saying “guess code names don’t mean anything.”