I've seen a slight increase in speed when reversing B&W film (at least with Tri-X) using a highly active first developer and a small amount of thiosulfate added in the first dev. The combination of development to completion and very high silver solvency (neither one usual for film) result in reducing the amount of halide remaining for the reversal and second developer, thus lightening the final slide (effectively an increase in speed, if it isn't at the cost of shadow detail).
With paper, we'd normally develop (nearly) to completion anyway, so there's nothing to gain by increasing the level of first development -- so in order to lighten the final positive, we'd need to expose more. Adding silver solvency in the first dev might help a little, but a print emulsion also has a narrower dynamic range than film and starts with less halide (which is more or less the same thing), so there's less room to push the image up the curve than would be the case with a camera film like Tri-X, FP-4 Plus, etc. In the end, all you have available is to give more light.
At least, that's how I read the situation.