I think the combo of both helped you out equally and it doesn't sound far fetched. I had much the same results.
Mine had a TH400 w/4.56 rear end and stepped it down to 3.42. That increased me from 13mpg screaming at 55mph to 15mpg screaming at 70mph, lol. When I could keep the mph down to 55 I could get 17 (stock 31in tires).
A few months ago I converted to a NV4500 and now I'm cruising at 70mph getting 20 (it's a 6.2l diesel with a banks turbo).
The key is to maximize your mpg gains by staying in the right RPM range. For my diesel that is 1700-1900rpm. My combo of tires, gears, OD, and desired mph put me right in the sweet spot. Not sure what it is for your combo, but if you find out you could use an online rpm calculator to figure out what the best gear ratio would be for you...unless you want/need the 4.56 for towing/off-roading. Of course I only had one axle to change so it was cheaper.