While we're side tracked...PLC does not have anything to do with being prior enlisted, but then again arguing for or against the advantages of prior enlisted officers has no relation to the OP either.
Aggie1, I guess some of us are a little confused by your post. It does, however, make me wonder how many career officers (20+ years) come from the academies across the services compared to the percentage that commission from the academies in each service.

Given how the military has changed over the last 20 years, don't know if that would be relevant to today's Academies.

The United States has service academies because the U.S. wants service academies. Not because we need them.

If we wanted to, we could offer more scholarships but limited to top tier academic institutions trained by active duty company grade, field grade officers and junior and senior NCO's. These jobs are now considered career opportunities rather than end of career positions.

And for the engineering vs liberal arts argument, how many 4 stars were history, philosophy, poli sci, sociology majors?

At the entry/tactical level it is engineering. At the senior level it is all philosophical, politics and sociology.

Another idea that was brought up was platoon level leadership an NCO position. I agree with this. Platoon leaders defer a lot to them anyways, but bring back the specialist rank. Not everyone wants or should be required to be a leader to be effective.

Also, how about making the Warrant Officer position a senior level position regardless of MOS and a billet but not necessarily a permanent pay and rank. Meaning if a company has the need for a rock solid XO a company 1SG could fill it (even as CO perhaps). 1SG Carwood Lipton.

My problem with the platoon leader being an NCO instead of a young 2LT, where is that young 2LT going to get his leadership training in order to become a good CO as a captain? I know damn good and well who ran my platoon when I was a butter bar, but because I was the one accountable for it's performance, I made sure to pay close attention to what and how my PSG went about his business and how he treated the men in order to get the most out of them so I didn't get my butt chewed by the CO and the Group Commander (didn't always work). The same goes for keeping the XO as a 1LT, he/she is still being trained by the CO and the NCOs to assume command. We all know that the 1SG is second only to the CO in the real pecking order.